ARICA-2 Satellite

Demonstrate the real-time alert system of transient astronomical sources, such as gamma-ray bursts, using commercial satellite network services.

Demonstrate the real-time alert system of transient astronomical sources, such as gamma-ray bursts, using commercial satellite network services.

The first 1U CubeSat ARICA, which had the same mission goal as ARICA-2, was successfully launched in 2021 by the JAXA’s Epsilon rocket No.5. However, communication with ARICA has yet to be established due to severe hardware issues. Therefore, ARICA2 is the re-challenging mission of ARICA.

ARICA-2 has several different features compared to ARICA.

1. First, a transceiver using amateur radio frequency is added to the commercial satellite network devices to communicate directly from the ground.
2. Second, ARICA-2 uses Sony’s low-power board Spresense as an onboard computer.
3. Third, the attitude control system using magnetorquer is installed to establish better communication with the commercial network satellites.
4. Fourth, the size of a gamma-ray detector is 70 mm x 70 mm x 10 mm, which is larger by a factor of 200 in volume compared to ARICA, to enhance the detection rate of gamma-ray bursts.

We plan to develop the engineering model (EM) in 2023 and perform thermal vacuum and vibration tests on the EM. We are targeting a launch in the Japanese fiscal year of 2024.

• TRANSCEIVER - sci_Zone LinkStar STX3
• BATTERY - Clyde Space
• OBC - Spresense
• STRUCTURE - Clyde Space

• ARICA-2
• FSI-SAT2
• KOSEN-2R
• MAGNARO-II Piscis
• MAGNARO-II Tigris
• Mono-Nikko
• OrigamiSat-2
• Prelude