Polish satellite BRITE Heweliusz model in Gdansk 19

Lem (also called BRITE-PL) is the first Polish governmental artificial

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 ...

. It was launched in November 2013 as part of the Bright-star Target Explorer (BRITE) programme. The spacecraft was launched aboard a

Dnepr rocket The Dnepr rocket (; ) was a space launch vehicle named after the Dnieper River. It was a converted ICBM used for launching artificial satellites into orbit, operated by launch service provider ISC Kosmotras. The first launch, on April 21, 1999, ...

. Named after the Polish

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writer

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fi ...

, it is an

optical astronomy Visible-light astronomy encompasses a wide variety of astronomical observation via telescopes that are sensitive in the range of visible light (optical telescopes). Visible-light astronomy is part of optical astronomy, and differs from astronomi ...

spacecraft built by the

Space Research Centre The Space Research Centre (SRC, ) is an interdisciplinary research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It was established in 1976 and began operations in 1977. SRC PAS is the only institute in Poland whose activity is fully dedicated t ...

of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

and operated by Centrum Astronomiczne im. Mikołaja Kopernika PAN; one of two Polish contributions to the BRITE constellation along with the

Heweliusz ''Heweliusz'' is an upcoming Polish drama television miniseries about the sinking of the MS ''Jan Heweliusz''. Featuring an ensemble cast, it will be released on Netflix in late 2025. Premise In 1993, the Polish ferry capsizes off the coast o ...

satellite.

Features

Lem is the first Polish scientific satellite, and the second (after PW-Sat) ever launched. Along with

TUGSAT-1 TUGSAT-1, also known as BRITE-Austria and CanX-3B, is the first Austrian satellite. It is an optical astronomy spacecraft operated by the Graz University of Technology as part of the international BRIght-star Target Explorer programme. Details ...

UniBRITE-1 UniBRITE-1 is, along with TUGSAT-1, one of the first two Austrian satellites to be launched. Along with TUGSAT, it operates as part of the BRITE, BRIght Target Explorer constellation of satellites. The two spacecraft were launched aboard the same ...

and BRITE-Toronto, it is one from a constellation of six nanosatellites of the BRIght-star Target Explorer project, operated by a consortium of universities from Canada,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and Poland. Lem was developed and manufactured by the

of the

in 2011, based around the Generic Nanosatellite Bus, and had a mass at launch of (plus another 7 kg for the XPOD separation system). The satellite is used, along with four other operating spacecraft, to conduct photometric observations of stars with an

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the Irradiance, brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction (astronomy), ...

brighter than 4.0 as seen from Earth. Lem was one of two Polish BRITE satellites launched, along with the

spacecraft. Four more satellites—two Austrian and two Canadian—were launched at different dates.

Mission

Lem observes the stars in the blue color range, whereas

does it in red. Due to the multicolour option, geometrical and thermal effects in the analysis of the observed phenomena are separated. None of the much larger satellites, such as MOST and

CoRoT CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly t ...

, has this colour option; this is crucial in the diagnosis of the internal structure of stars. Lem photometrically measures low-level oscillations and temperature variations in stars brighter than visual magnitude (4.0), with unprecedented precision and temporal coverage not achievable through terrestrial based methods.

Launch

The Lem satellite was launched from the Russian Yasny air base aboard a Dnepr through the BRITE-PL Project satellite launch programme established in 2009 by the

of the

and The Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in cooperation with University of Toronto. The launch was subcontracted to the Russian Ministry of Defence which launched the satellites using Dnepr rocket from the Yasny air base along with 33 other satellites. The launch took place at 07:10 (

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

) on 21 November 2013, and the rocket deployed all of its payloads successfully.

Explanatory notes

References

{{BRITE Spacecraft launched in 2013 Satellites of Poland Space telescopes 2013 in Poland Spacecraft launched by Dnepr rockets Commemoration of Stanisław Lem

Features

Mission

Launch

See also

Explanatory notes

References