The ALEXIS project: EUV astrophysics on a rollercoaster

Conference · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · American Astronomical Society, Bulletin; (United States)

OSTI ID:7050770

Bloch, J; Edwards, B; Priedhorsky, W; Roussel-Dupre, D; Smith, B W ^[1]; Siegmund, O H.W.; Carone, T; Cully, S; Rodriguez-Bell, T; Warren, J; Vallerga, W J

---

1. Los Alamos National Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) satellite is Los Alamos' first attempt at building and flying a low cost, rapid development, technology demonstration and scientific space mission. The ALEXIS satellite contains the two experiments: the ALEXIS telescope array, (which consists of six EUV/ultrasoft x-ray telescopes utilizing multilayer mirrors, each with a 33 degree field-of-view), and a VHF ionospheric experiment called Blackbeard. The spacecraft is controlled exclusively from a ground station located at Los Alamos. The 250 lb. ALEXIS satellite was launched by a Pegasus booster into a 400 nautical mile, 70 degree inclination orbit on April 25, 1993. Images from a video system on the rocket seemed to indicate that ALEXIS has been severely damaged during launch with one of the 4 solar panels breaking away from its mounting. (It later turned out that the solar paddle was still attached to the spacecraft but only through some cable bundles). Attempts at communicating with the satellite were unsuccessful until a surprised ground crew received a short transmission on on June 2. By mid July, ground station operators had regained full control of the satellite and scientific operations were initiated at that time. However, the damage to the spacecraft has rendered unusable the original scheme for obtaining spacecraft attitude solutions. In order to fully analyze the telescope data, a new algorithm implementation to determine telescope pointing information is under development. Scientific results from data already in hand and those to be collected will not be possible until this task is complete. This work summarizes the current status of the ALEXIS project, its scientific goals, and the prospects for full mission recovery.

• OSTI ID: 7050770
• Report Number(s): CONF-940177-; CODEN: AASBAR
• Journal Information: American Astronomical Society, Bulletin; (United States), Vol. 25:4; Conference: 183. meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Washington, DC (United States), 11-15 Jan 1994; ISSN 0002-7537
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
RADIATION DETECTION
SATELLITES
LAUNCHING
OPERATION
SOFT X RADIATION
X-RAY DETECTION
ASTROPHYSICS
IONOSPHERE
LANL
TELESCOPES
DETECTION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RADIATIONS
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
X RADIATION
661320* - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)