3CS Overview
Mission and Payload Information
Nanosat-2 (3CS) on the Boeing website!
The Three Corner Sat flew as a secondary payload on the Delta IV Heavy rocket on December 21, 2004 at 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the maiden voyage for the Delta IV and was financed by the U.S. military and Boeing. For further information please see the links above.
The Three Corner Sat (3CS) mission was made up of three primary and three secondary mission objectives. The primary missions include stereoscopic imaging, formation flying, and end-to-end command and data handling. The science includes stereoscopic imaging of clouds and other atmospheric structures using a satellite formation. This was to be accomplished while using virtual formation communications, a technology that allows the satellites to operate as a network utilizing communication and data links. Finally, the formation uses distributed and automated operations in the innovative command and data handling system. This allows both the individual S/C and the formation to reconfigure themselves for optimum data gathering, command/control, and communication.
The secondary missions included demonstrating micropropulsion, demonstrating a plugin_content_box S/C bus design, and emphasizing student education. The micropropulsion experiment was used to increase the altitude of all three satellites allowing an extended mission lifetime and greater data gathering capacity. This system, under development at AFRL/Edwards AFB, ASU, and JPL will be an important pioneer for future small S/C propulsion. The S/C bus is a modular. easily configurable design, allowing one to fly multiple science payloads with minimal modifications to the structure and configuration. This program will additionally emphasize student education as students actively participate in program management, design, manufacturing, testing, and operational aspects.