TUGSAT-1/BRITE-Austria—The first Austrian nanosatellite

• Published in: Acta astronautica Vol. 64; no. 11; pp. 1144 - 1149
• Main Authors: Koudelka, O., Egger, G., Josseck, B., Deschamp, N., Cordell Grant, C., Foisy, D., Zee, R., Weiss, W., Kuschnig, R., Scholtz, A., Keim, W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2009
• Subjects: Bright Target Explorer; Differential photometry; Nanosatellite; Bright Target Explorer; Differential photometry; Nanosatellite
• ISSN: 0094-5765; 1879-2030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.01.016

A nanosatellite to investigate the brightness oscillations of massive luminous stars by differential photometry is currently developed by a Canadian/Austrian team within the BRITE (Bright Target Explorer) project. The first Austrian satellite funded by the Austrian Space Program, called TUGSAT-1/BRITE-Austria, builds on the space heritage of the most successful Canadian CanX-2 and MOST missions. The satellite makes use of recent advances in miniaturized attitude determination and control systems. Precision three-axis stabilization by small reaction wheels and a star tracker provides the necessary accuracy for the photometer telescope to the arcminute level. This will provide to the astronomers photometric data of the most massive stars with unprecedented precision; data which cannot be obtained from the ground due to limitations imposed by the terrestrial atmosphere. The paper describes the spacecraft characteristics and the ground infrastructure being established in support of the BRITE mission which will consist of a constellation of up to four nearly identical satellites allowing to carry out long-term observation of stars (magnitude +3.5) not only with respect to brightness variations, but also in different spectrum ranges.