IceCube, also known as Earth-1, was a 3U

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

funded and developed by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

. 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. Cir ...

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 micro ...

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 Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

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 In aerospace engineering, spin stabilization is a method of stabilizing a satellite or launch vehicle by means of spin, i.e. rotation along the longitudinal axis. The concept originates from conservation of angular momentum as applied to ballistic ...

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 OA-7, previously known as Orbital-7, is the eighth flight of the Orbital ATK uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its seventh flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The m ...

launched on April 18, 2017 as the seventh flight of the

Cygnus spacecraft Cygnus is an Expendable launch system, expendable American Uncrewed spacecraft, automated cargo spacecraft designed for International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions. It was initially developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation with financia ...

to the ISS as under NASA's

Commercial Resupply Services Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first phase of CRS contracts (CRS-1) were sign ...

program. The Cygnus spacecraft docked with the ISS on April 2, 2017. IceCube was deployed from the ISS via the

Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer The Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) is a device to deploy CubeSats into orbit from the International Space Station (ISS). In 2014, two CubeSat deployers were on board the International Space Station (ISS): the Japanese Experiment Module (J ...

along with several other CubeSats on May 16, 2017. It re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on October 3, 2018, ending its mission.

References

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

Objectives

Design

Instruments

Launch and mission

See also

References