Northwest Aerospace News August | September Issue No. 10 | Page 28

Payload fairing of the Electron booster, which lifted a set of CubeSat's into space for NASA (Credit: Rocket Lab)
A
n exploratory video of the program
via NASA Kennedy’s YouTube.com
page called “NASA’s ELaNa-19: Small
Satellite, Big Dreams,” illustrates that the
“Educational Launch of Nano Satellites
(ELaNa) are compact satellites that pack
a lot of science into the size of a loaf of
bread.” They are revolutionizing space
research, a spokesperson said, “Instead
of having a launch for a primary mission
every two to five years, the goal is to
develop launches in a regular cadence for
regular access to orbit.”
DaVinci is designed to connect with stu-
dents around the world while broadcasting
education-related messages using Morse
Code. The concept is like the Ovaltine
messages of yesteryear where listeners
would receive and decode messages on
the weekly broadcast (Jessica Millard,
student project coordinator, DaVinci). The
message at the time of this writing was,
“Thank you NASA.”
28
NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
OTHER SATELLITES IN THE PAYLOAD ARE DOING THE FOLLOWING:
Using robotic arms to grab on to a host satellite and review the satellite for
repairs by taking photos
Monitoring space weather over Earth’s poles and demonstrate a simulation
and test platform for future Cubesat missions
Test materials to shield space craft against radiation
Collection of data on Earth’s magnetic field
Using lasers instead of radio waves to navigate in deep space
Testing a 250-meter solar sail ribbon
Reviewing plasma fluctuations in space