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SWARM satellites launching on Friday

KevUU

By KevUU
in The Astro Lounge

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KevUU

KevUU

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Getting excited now, had to post.

I've been working on on-board software for the SWARM satellites since late 2008, and the things are finally (hopefully) going up into orbit this Friday :D

The three satellites are scheduled to launch this Friday, 22nd November, at 12:02:15.

This occupied 3 years of my working life up to mid-2011, helping to develop the on-board software which controls the satellites. Since then we've been waiting a year and a half for the launcher to be ready to Rokot ;)

This is an ESA Earth Observation mission, making a detailed study of the Earth's magnetic field and the influences from air- and ocean- currents.

I somehow ended up as Technical Lead for the software so it feels a bit like 'my baby' now... Also this will be the first launch of my software since I got into the space industry :) So I'm getting a bit tense and slightly excitable too =D

The launch should be viewable live online via ESA TV (see here http://www.esa.int/esatv/Transmissions/2013/11/Swarm_launch_Live). There's a link from there to an ESA page if you want to know more about the mission.

Fingers crossed for a successful launch (and clean separation from the rocket - otherwise it may follow a previous satellite into the arctic ice sheets *gulp*) :):D

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KevUU

KevUU

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Cheers Paul :)

Lets hope the people on the ground check whether it's diesel or unleaded....

Lol. "Fill her up please!" They've had the nozzle in the tank *all day* today, I'm glad I'm not paying for that!

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KevUU

KevUU

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Wow, thought you just twiddled with photocopiers and pencil sharpeners. Hoping all goes well, Old Nick.

Ha! I've heard your tales of your time served in an office job Nick :)

It does feel a bit like just paperwork pushing and box ticking a lot of the time, and yet somehow here I am, seems a little surreal really.

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KevUU

KevUU

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One last critical step to go: Deployment of the boom which holds the sensitive sensors away from the antennae and whatnot on the main body of the satellite.

The first one has just deployed successfully.  Two more to go - the last one at 0053...  :coffee:

Still, nearly there, and how many times in my life will I get to do this? :)

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KevUU

KevUU

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Cheers rory. It has it's moments, although most of those are when you talk to other people about it. Yesterday was my first launch after 5 years in the industry. Everything in between is frankly dominated by paperwork and tedium interspersed with deadlines and panic, all with an undercurrent of responsibility and stress. That's how the day-to-day often feels anyway, so being interested in space and knowing where my software is going helps with that.

(Even yesterday, after the excitement of launch and separation we settled down to 12 hours of poring over files of received telemetry as it came down. The novelty wore off about the 3 hour mark, after that it was just about keeping awake!)

So apologies for being, I suspect, rather unbearable yesterday - days like that don't happen often and I'll only get my first launch once so I wanted to make the most of it. Thanks for all of your kind comments :)

PS: Don't worry, I'll tone down my signature soon ;)

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KevUU

KevUU

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Congratulations. We all knew it would work. A Mars mission next? :-)

Cheers Kropster. No Mars for me, although my company is working on bits for Europe's ExoMars mission but that's more on autonomy and a planning systems. More Earth Observation for me at the moment. I'd love to do something for a Mars mission though :D

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Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan

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Getting excited now, had to post.

Hey, nice result ! Well done, congrats.

know how you feel, in another century a long time ago I was involved in (telecomms feasability studies of )

Giotto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giotto_%28spacecraft%29

and (after a hiatus and rebirth - after NASA did a wobbly ) Ulysses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_%28spacecraft%29

argh,

oh bother,

I see from that last link that it is now decommissioned,

harrumph, when did that happen, ? , last time I looked it was still going strong, one of the longer lasting spacecraft  ,,, :( :(

ho hum

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Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan

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and (after a hiatus and rebirth - after NASA did a wobbly ) Ulysses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_%28spacecraft%29

,,,

harrumph, when did that happen, ?

Ah, I run outa edit time :

Oh, seems like they turned it off in June2009,

without asking me first !!!

This was initially a dual spacecraft mission, one by ESA and one by NASA , both to fly-by Jupiter into above and below ecli[ptic orbits north and south sun-polar to monitor solar activity durng solarmax but looking down-on and below-up in the polar regions.

But NASA pulled out and ESA, because of the cost of the Halley-Giotto mission could not support both, so it was mothballed and Giotto went ahead.

_Later_ NASA opted back in in a support role to the now renamed, solo, ESA Ulysses mission and from the look of the website you'd think it was a NASA enterprise :(

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KevUU

KevUU

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Cheers Ptarmigan :) Decomissioning is a long way off in my head, but I expect it will creep up and pass before I know it :( Feeling nearly as high as the satellites right now though. Had a call in this morning but it's all okay, so it looks like LEOP is all cleared, yay!

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