PREFIRE Spacecraft - Nanosats Database

Spacecraft name	PREFIRE
Form factor	CubeSat
Units or mass	6U
Organization	University of Wisconsin
Institution	University
Entity type	Academic / Education
Headquarters	US
Manufacturer	AIVT by ?
Partners	NASA, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Michigan, University of Colorado Boulder
Costs	$33 million
Oneliner	Measuring the Arctic’s radiant energy and how this energy is affecting the Arctic warming.
Description	Measuring the Arctic’s radiant energy and how this energy is affecting the Arctic warming. Use miniaturized thermal spectrometers about the size of a penny. PREFIRE makes the first full spectral measurements of Far InfraRed (FIR) radiation, revealing the full spectrum of Arctic radiant energy. It fills a major gap in our knowledge of the Arctic energy budget and the role of FIR radiation in Arctic warming, sea ice loss, ice sheet melt, and sea level rise. Two 6U CubeSat spacecraft in two different 470-650 km altitude, near-polar (82°-98° inclination) orbits, each with a Heritage miniaturized IR spectrometer, covering the 0-54 μm region at 0.84 μm spectral resolution, operating for one seasonal cycle (a year) with diurnal subsampling. Thermal IR Spectrometer (TIRS). Flight-proven hardware and design—TIRS uncooled detector and filter block design maturity are from Mars Climate Sounder and Diviner. Instrument has adequate margins (mass, power, volume, and data rate). Orbit and mission design flexibility for accommodating different launch opportunities
Results	The first cube satellite, or CubeSat, launched on May 25 from New Zealand and started sending back science data in July. Launched on June 5, the second CubeSat had an issue with its GPS unit, which researchers were planning to use to help geolocate the science data from the satellite. After the GPS unit on the first CubeSat also began experiencing issues, the PREFIRE team decided to turn off the GPS units on both CubeSats and use an alternative method for geolocating the science data. The second CubeSat started sending back science data in August. The GPS issue has not affected the science operations of either CubeSat.
Sources	[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Photo sources	[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Related Spacecraft

Spacecraft	Status	Launcher	Launch date	Orbit
PREFIRE-2 (PREFIRE B. Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment)	Operational (Collecting data as per news 2024-12-03 but GPS had issues)	Electron	2024-05-25	530 km, 97.5 deg
PREFIRE-1 (PREFIRE A, Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment)	Operational (Collecting data as per news 2024-12-03 but GPS had issues)	Electron	2024-06-05	530 km, 97.5 deg

Last modified: 2024-12-17