MARTINLARA MISSION
The goal of MARTINLARA project is the design of a demonstration space mission in orbit, and the development of several technologies to be airborne validated, namely radio astronomy and Earth observation instrumentation, space photonics and plasma micropropulsion, all of them carried out by research groups in the Community of Madrid.
The project involves the development of a nanosatellite platform for airborne validations.
MARTINLARA Mission objectives
The ML mission has several main objectives on technological demonstration and science. The first one has priority; the rest are considered secondary objectives.
1. Technological demonstration of a multiband array of 3 ground and 3 sky mm-wave photonic radiometers working at room temperature.
a. Acquire payload temperature, voltage and current data for 15 minutes sampling in a range of 0.05-1 Hz while after commissioning.
b. Take measurements with each radiometer pair for two orbits (one with each polarization) and verify they per-orbit repeatability and that measurements are in the expected range.
c. Continue taking measurements for 1 month, repeating this scheme.
2. Observe interplanetary dust interaction with Earth and the magnetic South (North) poles with the ground mm-wave photonic radiometers.
a. Take measurements with the three ground radiometers for one full orbit each, within 500 km of the South pole, with a 1 degpointing accuracy, and a 0.1 attitude determination accuracy.
b. Continue to measure for 1 month.
3. Observe the Earth ground temperature with the ground mm-wave photonic radiometers.
a. Take measurements of ground radiometers, with a 1 deg angular pointing accuracy, and a 0.1 deg attitudedetermination accuracy for 2 orbits.
b. Continue to measure to map the Earth completely.
4. Observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with the sky mm-wave photonic radiometers.
a. Measure for 1 orbit, with a mapping accuracy of +- 0.5 deg beamwidth (2.5x2.5 deg).
b. Continue to measure to obtain a complete map of the sky if possible.
5. Technological demonstration of the first Spanish electrical micro pulsed plasma thruster (μPPT).
a. Operate the thruster for 10k pulses (ca. 3h) and take measurements to calculate the impulse bit per pulse, its standard deviation, and drift over time, with the goal of later continuing to achieve 100k and 1M pulses.
6. Demonstrate a versatile nanosatellite platform for the demonstration of space technologies.