Rock Spacecraft

Determine the performance of a novel surface coating developed by Array Labs, one satellite (Lopen) has it and second one (Rock) does not.

ROCK and LOPEN are a pair CubeSats, one of which will test a special coating that is expected to affect the spacecraft’s drag.

The overall goal of the Rock & Lopen mission is to determine the performance of a novel surface coating developed by Array Labs. The coating is expected to increase the effect of attitude on the amount of drag a spacecraft in LEO experiences, enhancing the ability for LEO spacecraft to intentionally increase or decrease drag forces during a mission.

This mission consists of two nearly identical 1.5U satellites. One spacecraft (“Lopen”) will have the novel coating applied to all its external surfaces, and another (“Rock”) will serve as a control for the experiment and will have no special surface coating applied. Based on each spacecraft’s position over time and their relative orbital decay rates, Array Labs will demonstrate the effect of the novel coating on drag in LEO. Performance data derived from this mission will be used to inform the design of Array Labs’ future earth imagery constellations. 

Each of the two spacecraft has identical overall physical dimensions of 10 cm X 10 cm X 17.7 cm). The total mass is about 1.83 kg

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