On April 18 2017, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's IceCube 3U CubeSat was launched by an ATLAS V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on board a Cygnus resupply spacecraft, as part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. Onboard IceCube was an 883 GHz radiometer tuned to detecting ice content in clouds, marking the first time such frequency was used from low-Earth orbit. IceCube successfully demonstrated retrieval of ice water path, generating the first ever global cloud ice map at 883 GHz. Its success provides valuable lessons on how to approach a severely resource-limited space mission and provides great insight into how this experience can be applied to future high-risk, "non-class" missions for NASA and others. IceCube marks the first official NASA Earth Science CubeSat technology demonstration mission. The spacecraft was completed in about 2.5 years starting April 2014 through launch provider delivery in December of 2016. The mission was jointly funded by NASA's Earth Science Technology Office, after competitive selection, and by NASA's Earth Science Directorate. IceCube began its technology demonstration mission in June 2017, providing a pathway to advancing the understanding of ice clouds and their role in climate models; quite a tall order for a tiny spacecraft.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    NASA IceCube: CubeSat Demonstration of a Commercial 883-GHz Cloud Radiometer


    Contributors:
    J. Esper (author) / D. Wu (author) / T. Johnson (author) / A. Coleman (author) / N. Ehsan (author) / J. Piepmeier (author) / B. Abresch (author) / B. Flaherty (author) / C. Purdy (author) / J. Hudeck (author)

    Publication date :

    2018


    Size :

    15 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    NASA IceCube: CubeSat Demonstration of a Commercial 883-GHz Cloud Radiometer

    Esper, Jaime / Wu, Dong / Abresch, Brian et al. | NTRS | 2018


    IceCube: CubeSat Demonstration of 883-GHz Cloud Ice Radiometer

    Wu, D. L. / Esper, J. / Ehsan, N. et al. | NTRS | 2015


    IceCube: Spaceflight Demonstration of 883-GHz Cloud Radiometer for Future Science

    D. L. Wu / J. R. Piepmeier / J. Esper et al. | NTIS | 2019


    IceCube: spaceflight demonstration of 883-GHz cloud radiometer for future science

    Wu, Dong L. / Piepmeier, Jeffrey R. / Esper, Jaime et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2019