HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - IceCube (spacecraft)
OR:
IceCube (spacecraft) on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

IceCube, also known as Earth-1, was a 3U CubeSat satellite funded and developed by NASA. Its goal was to demonstrate and map
ice clouds An ice cloud is a colloid of ice particles dispersed in air. The term has been used to refer to clouds of both water ice and carbon dioxide ice on Mars. Such clouds can be sufficiently large and dense to cast shadows on the Martian surface. Cirru ...
through the use of its 883 GHz
radiometer A radiometer or roentgenometer is a device for measuring the radiant flux (power) of electromagnetic radiation. Generally, a radiometer is an infrared radiation detector or an ultraviolet detector. Microwave radiometers operate in the microwave w ...
.


Objectives

IceCube was built to map ice clouds globally. It had a submillimeter radiometer to overcome the limitation of ice particles in clouds being opaque in the infrared and visible spectrums. It was made to demonstrate a 833-gigahertz submillimeter-wave receiver as part of a technology demonstration mission.


Design

IceCube was a Sun-pointing
spin-stabilized Spin stabilization is the method of stabilizing a satellite or launch vehicle by means of spin, i.e. rotation along the longitudinal axis. The concept originates from ballistics, where the spin is commonly obtain by means of rifling. For most sate ...
3U CubeSat with two solar panel arrays. In its compact form, it occupied a volume of 10 x 10 x 30cm.


Instruments

IceCube had a 883 GHz radiometer allowing the penetration of cloud layers and measurement of ice mass. At 883 GHz, radiation is highly sensitive to scattering allowing it to interact with ice in the clouds.


Launch and mission

Cygnus OA-7 launched on April 18, 2017 as the seventh flight of the Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS as under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program. The Cygnus spacecraft docked with the ISS on April 2, 2017. IceCube was deployed from the ISS via the Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer along with several other CubeSats on May 16, 2017. It re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on October 3, 2018, ending its mission.


See also

* Lunar IceCube


References

2017 in spaceflight Satellites deployed from the International Space Station CubeSats {{orbital launches in 2017