MightySat-2 was a small spacecraft developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory to test advanced technologies in imaging, communications, and spacecraft bus components in space.

Design

MightySat II.1 was manufactured by General Dynamics

General Dynamics

General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...

 in a modular approach, using, e.g., VME-based

VMEbus

VMEbus is a computer bus standard, originally developed for the Motorola 68000 line of CPUs, but later widely used for many applications and standardized by the IEC as ANSI/IEEE 1014-1987. It is physically based on Eurocard sizes, mechanicals and connectors , but uses its own signalling system,...

 subsystems, and a planar payload deck for small experimental payloads. The satellite measured 0.67m x 0.83m x 0.86m (WxLxH) and had a launch weight of 123.7 kg (Bus Mass: 87.1 kg). Power was provied by 2-axis articulated Si solar arrays with an designed end-of-life power output of 330 W. The Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem featured a 3-axis zero-momentum-bias reaction wheel assembly with a Sun sensor, a star tracker and inertial measurement units, delivering an attitude jitter of 15.7 arcsec/sec, and poiting accuracy and knowledge of 648 and 540 arcsec, respectively. The communication was compatible with the US Air Force Space-Ground Link System with data rates of 1 Mbps for payload/experiments data downlink,
2.0 kbps for Command uplink, and 20 kbps for Telemetry downlink. Computing and data handling was done by a RAD6000 CPU @ 20 MIPS with a IEEE VME backplane 128 MByte CPU RAM, and a 21.6 MBytes/sec transfer rate, and a 2 Gbit Solid State Recorder for Science Data. Among its 10 experiments was a Fourier Transform Hyperspectral Imager

Hyperspectral imaging

Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. Much as the human eye sees visible light in three bands , spectral imaging divides the spectrum into many more bands...

.

Mission

MightSat II.1 ws launched on July 19, 2000 with a Minotaur I

Minotaur I

The Minotaur I, or just Minotaur is an American expendable launch system derived from the Minuteman II missile. It is used to launch small satellites for the US Government, and is a member of the Minotaur family of rockets produced by Orbital Sciences Corporation.Minotaur I rockets consist of the...

. It deorbited in November 2002 due to natural decay of its orbit, exceeding more than twice its nominal lifetime.

Stand-Alone Experiments/Sensors

• Kestrel Fourier Transform (Visible) Hyperspectral Imager
  Hyperspectral imaging
  Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. Much as the human eye sees visible light in three bands , spectral imaging divides the spectrum into many more bands...
  
  
• Quad TMS320C40 (QC40) Floating Point Digital Signal Processor
• DARPA-Aerospace sponsored PicoSat Launcher Assembly
• Shape Memory Alloy Thermoelastic Tailoring Experiment
• Starfire optical reflectors for use with Kirtland’s Starfire Optical Range
  Starfire Optical Range
  Starfire Optical Range is a United States Air Force research laboratory on the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
  
  

Engineering/Experimental Bus Components

• The NRL miniature SGLS Transponder (known as the NSX)
• The Multi-functional Composite Bus Structure
• Solar Array Concentrator
• Advanced Composite Solar Array Substrate
• Solar Array Flexible Interconnect