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Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) is the first National Science Foundation sponsored CubeSat mission.〔(National Science Foundation Press Release )〕 The RAX mission is a joint effort between SRI International in Menlo Park, California and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The chief scientist at SRI International, Dr. Hasan Bahcivan, led his team at SRI to develop the payload while the chief engineer, Dr. James Cutler, led a team of students to develop the satellite bus in the Michigan Exploration Laboratory. There are currently two satellites in the RAX mission. The RAX-1 mission, launched in November 2010, was a demonstration of the team’s technological capabilities – it made great strides in CubeSat design, and was able to execute bistatic radar measurements that had never before been performed on a satellite of its size.〔(RAX-1 Mission Completed )〕 RAX-2 builds on this heritage by completing the scientific portion of the overall mission; it is a reflection of students learning from practical experience, and swiftly implementing new, more inventive technologies firsthand. RAX team members were able to get practical spacecraft troubleshooting experience, and applied lessons learned from RAX-1 to RAX-2, which performs the same mission concept with improved bus performance and additional operational modes. RAX-2 launched on October 28, 2011 as part of the NASA ELaNa-3 mission. ==Capabilities and mission objectives== RAX is capable of carrying out scientific procedures that previously could only be done with large satellites, thanks in part to new enabling technologies. RAX’s primary mission objective is to study large plasma formations in the ionosphere, the highest region of our atmosphere. These plasma instabilities can create magnetic field-aligned irregularities (FAI), which are dense plasma clouds known to disrupt communication between Earth and orbiting spacecraft. To study FAI, the RAX satellites utilize a large incoherent scatter radar located in Poker Flat, Alaska (known as PFISR). PFISR transmits powerful radio signals into the plasma instabilities, which then scatter in the FAI and are received by the orbiting RAX spacecraft. The signals are then processed by RAX’s onboard computer and transmitted back to Earth for scientific analysis. Earth-based scientists have been unable to study these unique plasma formations from the ground, and RAX will serve as a key transition point between Earth and Space. The goal of the RAX-2 mission is to enhance understanding of FAI formation so that short-term forecast models can be generated. This will aid spacecraft operators with planning their mission operations around periods of expected communication disruption. The RAX-1 mission made great strides in CubeSat design, and was able to execute bistatic radar measurements never before been performed with such a spacecraft. RAX team members applied the lessons learned from RAX-1 to the design of a second flight unit, RAX-2, which will perform the same mission concept of the first RAX that launched in November 2010, with improved bus performance and additional operational modes. Science measurements will be enhanced through interactive experiments with high power ionospheric heaters where FAI will be generated on demand. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Radio Aurora Explorer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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