SCION-X Satellite

SCION-X
Satellite SCION-X (SCintillation and IONosphere eXtended)
Form factor CubeSat
Units or mass 12U
Status not launched, expected in 2024
Launcher not launched
Organisation National Central University
Institution University
Entity Academic / Education
Country Taiwan
Oneliner

Inderstand the variation of ionospheric irregularities, remote sensing methods for PM2.5 pollution distribution, and thermospheric photochemistry while serving as a relay station for amateur radio. 

Description

SCION-X (SCintillation and IONosphere eXtended) is a 12U CubeSat that is being designed and developed by Upper Air Dynamics Laboratory, National Central University (NCU). SCION-X is the second funded CubeSat project being developed by NCU and is the largest self-developed spacecraft to date.

This mission will help to further understand the variation of ionospheric irregularities, remote sensing methods for PM2.5 pollution distribution, and thermospheric photochemistry while serving as a relay station for amateur radio. Furthermore, it will help increase the communication and cooperation between universities in developing spaceflight capacity. 

SCION-X is a 12U CubeSat that carries 3 science payloads and 1 service payload. It has been through the phase of Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and is currently in the Phase C Final Design and Fabrication stage, with construction of a flat sat for testing in progress. Integration and test is scheduled to be completed by Q4 2023, with launch in 2024.

**CIP - Space Weather Monitoring **
The CIP is an in-situ plasma probe derived from the Advanced Ionospheric Probe (AIP) onboard FormoSat-5 developed by the NCU Space Payload Laboratory. This probe contains a Retarding Potential Analyzer, Ion Trap, Ion Drift Meter, and Planar Langmuir Probe measuring with a timeshare data rate of up to 2k bytes per second.

**SEUV Probe - Thermospheric Photochemistry Monitoring **
The SEUV Probe includes a pair of metal electrodes and a signal processing PCB. The electrodes are made of tin and gold, which are mounted on the chassis of the spacecraft to measure the solar EUV flux and acquire the voltage by the photoelectric effect.

**Hyper-SCAN - PM2.5 Observation **
Hyper-SCAN performs remote sensing of aerosol distribution (such as PM 2.5 pollution) and provides hyperspectral images for calibration and qualification of the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET).

**APRS - APRS/AX.25 Data Packet Digipeater **
The APRS is a transponder that works at 145.825 MHz, which frequency is the same as the APRS on International Space Station (ISS). APRS allows SCION-X to serve as an amateur radio relay station that repeats messages in AX.25 format. This format is also commonly used by Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. 

Sources [1]
Photo sources [1]

Last modified: 2024-05-29

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