A Pair of UC Berkeley-Designed Cube Sats Were Popped Out, In Orbit -- By Ariane 6, Last Night. . . NASA's SOHO Observations To Commence In About A Week...

As we just said, a bevy of cube-sats were released by ESA's Ariane 6 launch and haul system, overnight -- all flawlessly. The goal is to investigate the unresolved origins of radio waves we detect -- coming from the Sun. It will take about a week for the tiny pair of cubes to reach a desired circular orbit -- on a trajectory about 350 miles above Earth, where our own atmosphere won't distort its readings -- in the lower frequency ranges the CURIE cube-crafts will study.

Among other ones, this Ariane 6 hauled load was a joint effort from helio/astrophysics wonks at UC Berkeley and NASA Palo Alto, to monitor low frequency radio waves (presumably generated at the solar surface). . . in the 0.1 to 19 megahertz ranges -- all to try pinpoint the radio waves’ ultimate points of origin. I suppose these "burps" could be coming from well below the surface as well -- when they are first generated. Here's the story:

. . . Once in its circular orbit, the two adjoined CURIE spacecraft will establish communication with ground stations before orienting and separating. When the separated satellites are in formation, their dual eight-foot antennas will deploy and start collecting data.

CURIE is sponsored by NASA’s Heliophysics Flight Opportunities for Research and Technology (H-FORT) Program and is the sole mission manifested on the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative’s ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) 43 mission. As a pathfinder, CURIE will demonstrate a proof-of-concept for space-based radio interferometry in the CubeSat form factor. CURIE will also pave the way for the upcoming Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment, or SunRISE, mission. SunRISE will employ six CubeSats to map the region where the solar radio waves originate. . . .

Presumably in 3D, though the NASA blurb calls it 2D, even for the later missions. But my understanding is that SunRISE will be mapping in 3D. We shall see. . . onward!

नमस्ते