PREPARING NANOSATELLITE AND LAUNCHING IT FROM THE RUSSIAN SEGMENT OF
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (NANOSPUTNIK), TWO INVESTIGATIONS
Research Area: Small Satellites and Control Technologies
Expedition(s): 10
Principal Investigator(s): ● Arnold S. Selivanov, PhD, Russian Corporation for Rocket-
Space Instrumentation and Information Systems, Moscow,
Russia
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Preparing Nanosatellite and Launching it from the Russian Segment of the International Space
Station (Nanosputnik) inserts a nanosatellite into low-Earth orbit and controls it to blaze a trail
for future reduction of expenditures on the development and use of space systems based on
small spacecraft.
SPACE BENEFITS
Nanosputnik results will be used in the following spheres of the aerospace industry:
technologies for low-cost creation and launches of spacecraft; technologies for performing
technical research and experiments on board manned orbital stations; telecommunications
technology; and technologies for global control of the systems of spacecraft.
RESULTS
During Expedition 10 in 2005, the first phase of the
Nanosputnik experiment was implemented: nanosatellite
[ТНС]-0 No. 1 was manually launched from the
International Space Station during an extravehicular
activity. The duration of the satellite's autonomous flight
was 4 months (it descended into the dense layers of the
atmosphere on August 30, 2005), during which time the
program of flight experiments was performed in full, and
results were obtained that confirmed the successful
achievement of the tasks assigned in the experiment:
- Use of the GLOBALSTAR satellite telecommunications
system to control and communicate with the small
spacecraft was confirmed. - Effective monitoring of the spacecraft's functioning
using the subscriber set of the international COSPAS-
SARSAT system was shown. - Tests of experimental onboard devices—system
monitor, Sun sensors, horizon sensor, lithium battery,
passive (magnetic) attitude-control and stabilization
system—were successfully performed.
Manual launch of nanosatellite [ТНС]- 0
No. 1 by cosmonaut S. Sharipov on
March 28, 2005 during International
Space Station Expedition 10. Roscosmos
image.