''Shin'en'', known before launch as UNITEC-1 or UNISEC Technology Experiment Carrier 1, is a Japanese student spacecraft which was intended to make a flyby of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

in order to study the effects of interplanetary

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in o ...

on spacecraft computers. In doing so, it was intended to become the first student-built spacecraft to operate beyond

geocentric orbit A geocentric orbit or Earth orbit involves any object orbiting Earth, such as the Moon or artificial satellites. In 1997, NASA estimated there were approximately 2,465 artificial satellite payloads orbiting Earth and 6,216 pieces of space debr ...

. It was operated by UNISEC, a collaboration between several Japanese universities. It was launched on 20 May 2010 and contact was lost shortly after.

Spacecraft

''Shin'en'' measures , and has a mass of . It has no

attitude control Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc. Controlling vehicle ...

or stabilisation system. Power is provided by

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. The primary payload of ''Shin'en'' consists of six university-built computers, which will be tested in

interplanetary space Interplanetary may refer to: * Interplanetary space, the space between the planets of the Solar System *Interplanetary spaceflight, travel between planets *The interplanetary medium, the material that exists in interplanetary space *The InterPla ...

for robustness against the radiation and extremes of temperature. The spacecraft also carries a camera, and a radiation counter. In order to simplify the system and reduce cost, a low power communications system will be used. It will broadcast a continuous wave with a data transfer rate of one

bit per second In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (bitrate or as a variable ''R'') is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction w ...

. UNISEC has invited

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communi ...

operators to assist in collecting data from the spacecraft.

Launch

''Shin'en'' was successfully launched from Pad 1 of the

Yoshinobu Launch Complex Yoshinobu Launch Complex (LC-Y) is a rocket launch site at the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built for the H-II launch vehicle and later used for H-IIA and H-IIB launches. ...

at the

Tanegashima Space Centre The (TNSC) is the largest rocket-launch complex in Japan with a total area of about 9.7 square kilometers. It is located on the southeast coast of Tanegashima, an island approximately south of Kyushu. It was established in 1969 when the N ...

, at 21:58:22 UTC on 20 May 2010. It was being launched as a secondary payload aboard an

H-IIA H-IIA (H-2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. These liquid fuel rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit; lunar or ...

202 rocket, with the primary payload being the

Akatsuki may refer to: * Akatsuki (spacecraft), an uncrewed Venus orbiter * , any of three classes of destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy * , any of three destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy * ''Akatsuki'' (train), operated between Kyoto and Na ...

spacecraft bound for Venus. The

IKAROS IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) experimental spacecraft. The spacecraft was launched on 20 May 2010, aboard an H-IIA rocket, together with the ''Akatsuki'' (V ...

solar sail Solar sails (also known as light sails and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large mirrors. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigation have been ...

experiment was also deployed from the same rocket on a trajectory towards Venus. Three other student spacecraft;

Waseda-SAT2 Waseda-SAT2 is a Japanese satellite which launched in May 2010. It is a student-built spacecraft, which will be operated by Waseda University, and is intended to be used for Earth observation and technology demonstration. It will test the use o ...

, K-Sat and Negai ☆ were also launched, however they separated from the rocket whilst it was still orbiting the Earth. ''Shin'en'' was the last spacecraft to separate from the rocket. The launch was conducted by

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Moto ...

on behalf of the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

. The H-IIA rocket was rolled out to the launch pad on 16 May 2010, departing the assembly building at 21:01 UTC and arriving at the launch pad 24 minutes later at 21:25 UTC, in preparation for a launch scheduled at 21:44:14 UTC on 17 May. The terminal countdown began at 11:30 UTC on 17 May and by 15:28, the loading of

cryogenic propellant Cryogenic fuels are fuels that require storage at extremely low temperatures in order to maintain them in a liquid state. These fuels are used in machinery that operates in space (e.g. rockets and satellites) where ordinary fuel cannot be used, d ...

into the rocket's first and second stages had been completed. This launch attempt was scrubbed a few minutes before the scheduled launch time due to bad weather. Following launch, ''Shin'en'' separated from the carrier rocket into a

heliocentric orbit A heliocentric orbit (also called circumsolar orbit) is an orbit around the barycenter of the Solar System, which is usually located within or very near the surface of the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun ...

. It was planned to fly past Venus six or seven months into its mission. Signals from the craft were briefly detected after launch, but contact was then lost. The last signals were received at 15:43 UTC on 21 May 2010, when the spacecraft was from Earth. UNISEC explains that ''Shin'en'' is the first student spacecraft to pass over the Van Allen radiation belt. ''Shin'en'' was expected to be near Venus as of December 2010.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2010 Spacecraft launched in 2010 Student satellites Japanese space probes Spacecraft launched by H-II rockets Derelict satellites in heliocentric orbit

Spacecraft

Launch

See also

References