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arXiv · 1309.5531

BRITE-Constellation: Nanosatellites for Precision Photometry of Bright Stars

W. W. Weiss·A. F. J. Moffat·A. Schwarzenberg-Czerny·O. F. Koudelka·C. C. Grant·R. E. Zee·R. Kuschnig·St. Mochnacki·S. M. Rucinski·J. M. Matthews·P. Orleanski·A. Pamyatnykh·A. Pigulski·J. Alves·M. Guedel·G. Handler·G. A. Wade·A. L. Scholtz
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Abstract

BRITE-Constellation (where BRITE stands for BRIght Target Explorer) is an international nanosatellite mission to monitor photometrically, in two colours, brightness and temperature variations of stars brighter than V = 4. The current mission design consists of three pairs of 7 kg nanosats from Austria, Canada and Poland carrying optical telescopes and CCDs. One instrument in each pair is equipped with a blue filter; the other, a red filter. The first two nanosats are UNIBRITE, designed and built by University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies - Space Flight Laboratory and its twin, BRITE-Austria, built by the Technical University Graz with support of UTIAS-SFL. They were launched on 25 February 2013 by the Indian Space Agency under contract to the Canadian Space Agency into a low-Earth dusk-dawn polar orbit.

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W. W. Weiss, A. F. J. Moffat, A. Schwarzenberg-Czerny, O. F. Koudelka, C. C. Grant, R. E. Zee, R. Kuschnig, St. Mochnacki, S. M. Rucinski, J. M. Matthews, P. Orleanski, A. Pamyatnykh, A. Pigulski, J. Alves, M. Guedel, G. Handler, G. A. Wade, A. L. Scholtz. 2013-09-21. BRITE-Constellation: Nanosatellites for Precision Photometry of Bright Stars. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743921313014105

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