SWARM satellites launching on Friday

[Mav359]

Kev mate thats so cool, i know the day to day might not be the greatest but Friday must make it all worth it, not to mentioned that you have worked on something that has actually gone to space! There can't be many people that can say that

Congrats

[DazC]

Are the SWARM satellites big enough to be seen naked eye at night if the sun reflects off them?

If they are, you could plan ahead and show people as they pass overhead.

That would be great.

D.C

[Mav359]

Are the SWARM satellites big enough to be seen naked eye at night if the sun reflects off them?

If they are, you could plan ahead and show people as they pass overhead.

That would be great.

D.C

That would be WAY cool

Kev stood in a feild pointing at the night sky saying "That Ones Mine"

[KevUU]

Kev mate thats so cool, i know the day to day might not be the greatest but Friday must make it all worth it, not to mentioned that you have worked on something that has actually gone to space! There can't be many people that can say that

Congrats

Don't encourage me Alan, I'm bad enough as it is

It is really very cool. I can't quite believe it, it hasn't actually sunk in properly I don't think. I really am very lucky to be doing what I'm doing

[KevUU]

Are the SWARM satellites big enough to be seen naked eye at night if the sun reflects off them?

If they are, you could plan ahead and show people as they pass overhead.

That would be great.

D.C

They're not small, but they don't have solar arrays - the solar panels are 'piggy backed' on the upper surfaces of the satellite - so I don't know how easy they will be to see.

There are two operating as a pair, I'd love to see those go past. If that's possible I will then be looking for a window when the upper one crosses paths with the lower pair overhead at my location, and trying to spot that! (Yes, I've been thinking about this...)

I need to have a look at Cryosat2's magnitude data, that has a similar hardware design I think.

[Mav359]

Any pic's of them

[KevUU]

Any pic's of them

I've cribbed a few from ESAs launch blog (http://blogs.esa.int/eolaunches/):

Underside of a swarm

Top side of all three swarms

Attaching the last one to the payload adapter

Payload inside fairing, connected to the upper stage of the launcher

Light the blue touch paper and retire...

[LongJohn54]

Are the SWARM satellites big enough to be seen naked eye at night if the sun reflects off them?

If they are, you could plan ahead and show people as they pass overhead.

That would be great.

D.C

The heavens-above full satellite list ends with the ASTRA 2E which was launched on 29 Sept 2013.   These should appear in the list reasonably quickly.  Then they can be tracked and the potential visibility estimated.

http://www.heavens-above.com/Satellites.aspx?lat=56.0061&lng=-4.2833&loc=Kirkintilloch&alt=456&tz=GMT

John

[KevUU]

The heavens-above full satellite list ends with the ASTRA 2E which was launched on 29 Sept 2013.   These should appear in the list reasonably quickly.  Then they can be tracked and the potential visibility estimated.

http://www.heavens-above.com/Satellites.aspx?lat=56.0061&lng=-4.2833&loc=Kirkintilloch&alt=456&tz=GMT

John

Ah yes I meant to say before: I looked up Cryosat 2 but Heavens Above reckons it's not visible. Doesn't bode well. My practically non-existent celestial mechanics doesn't stretch to working out when they will be visible to me and also in sight of the sun (from the satellite's pov) to give a potential reflection.... My Project Manager is rather proud of his Flight Dynamics background, maybe I'll test him

[KevUU]

...of course if any of the astrophotographers here could get me a satellite-trail picture of them I'd be very happy

Perhaps I should set a competition! The more of the satellites in the shot, the better the prize. All three would be awesome

You up for a challenge mav?!?

[happy-kat]

Any updates :-) is a really cool post

[KevUU]

Any updates :-) is a really cool post

The satellite operations is into the Commissioning phase, which is 3 months where they bring the science instruments on-line, move each sat into its operational orbit, and check out the reception and ground-handling of science data. After that of course they go operational. But my direct involvement is ended unless there are any software problems reported in-service.

Unless of course you meant my attempts to get the sats photographed, which have fallen on deaf ears

[happy-kat]

Both.

No news is good news then and hopefully someone will photo them.

[Mav359]

...of course if any of the astrophotographers here could get me a satellite-trail picture of them I'd be very happy

Perhaps I should set a competition! The more of the satellites in the shot, the better the prize. All three would be awesome

You up for a challenge mav?!?

I'll have a go!! if the skies ever clear

[Sp@ce_d]

Just checked my ESA WIS app..  I see they're on there now.. might have a shot

[Sp@ce_d]

Oh yes meant to say... I heard them get a mention yesterday & again today on radio 2's Simon Mayo show in relation to a Question on compass & earths magnetic field.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[happy-kat]

Any luck with an image? Only seen one at a time when I spot satellites.

[KevUU]

I've not even had a chance to look visually yet TBH, have been laid up after buggering my knee within a week of the launch

No word from anyone else - although expecting other people to photograph my satellites for me is a bit of a cheek!

I did sit down and work out the lateral separation of the pair in degrees at this latitude a while ago, but I can neither remember the answer nor find my working... I think given they won't be visible naked eye, you will only see them both on a widefield photo - they'd be too far apart too see through an eyepiece IIRC.

[Sp@ce_d]

I'm still up for having a go.. probably wide field with my setup anyway. The weathers been awful only had 2 short clear nights in past month.

Just having a look for predictions. My ESA WIS app doesn't seem to be able to get TLE data for them now, last lot was for 2/3 Dec. If I can find out where they are/will be I'll keep an eye out.

[KevUU]

I'm still up for having a go..

[...]

Just having a look for predictions. My ESA WIS app doesn't seem to be able to get TLE data for them now, last lot was for 2/3 Dec. If I can find out where they are/will be I'll keep an eye out.

Hurrah Thanks sp@ce_d

The mission is currently in the commissioning phase, which means that as well as checking all the science instruments out and calibrating stuff, they're also getting the satellites into their start-of-mission orbits. So the lower pair will be set up in polar orbit with the correct lateral separation, and the third will be lifted to a higher orbit. I guess they don't bother with TLE data during that phase, since it will be constantly changing?

As Jonathan Amos likes to say, Watch This Space