Abstract
SPRITE-SAT is a micro satellite in the size of 50 cm cube and weighing 45-kg, designed and developed by Tohoku University. Its mission objective is to conduct scientific observation of atmospheric luminous emissions called “sprites” and terrestrial Gamma-ray flushes. Both are recently discovered phenomena and their mechanisms are still under the veil. SPRITE-SAT was developed to achieve significant observations to determine clear models of these mysterious phenomena. On January 23rd, 2009, SPRITE-SAT was successfully launched by JAXA’s H-IIA rocket as a piggyback payload of Greenhouse Gas Observation Satellite (GOSAT). The spacecraft is now in a sun-synchronous polar orbit with 670 km altitude form the Earth’s surface.
This chapter is also written by SPRITE-SAT Development Team.
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Acknowledgement
This research is supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 19002002, provided by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan.
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Takahashi, Y., Yoshida, K., Sakamoto, Y., Sakamoi, T. (2010). SPRITE-SAT: A University Small Satellite for Observation of High-Altitude Luminous Events. In: Sandau, R., Roeser, HP., Valenzuela, A. (eds) Small Satellite Missions for Earth Observation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03501-2_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03501-2_18
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