Microwave Radiometer for Advanced Nanosatellite Control Systems

Microwave radiometers measure temperature, water vapor, and cloud ice in the atmosphere, since oxygen and water vapor naturally emit signals in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. These signals are measured at different heights and are used to make 3D images of hurricanes, tropical storms, and thunderstorms. The NanoRacks-Microsized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite (NanoRacks-MicroMAS) measures temperature from molecular oxygen. NanoRacks-MicroMAS is a small, low-cost CubeSat containing a miniaturized microwave scanner that paves the way for future constellations of similar satellites, gathering more detailed, more frequent images of severe weather that impacts people on Earth. NanoRacks CubeSats are delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) already integrated within a NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD).

The NanoRacks-MicroMAS is a dual-spinning 3U CubeSat equipped with a passive microwave spectrometer that operates nine channels near the 118.75-GHz oxygen absorption line. The focus of the first NanoRacks-MicroMAS mission is to observe convective thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, and hurricanes from a near-equatorial orbit. The payload housed in the “lower” 1U of the dual-spinning 3U CubeSat is mechanically rotated approximately once per second as the spacecraft orbits the Earth, resulting in a cross-track scanned beam with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) beam width of 2.5 degrees, and an approximately 20-km-diameter footprint at nadir (directly below) incidence from a nominal altitude of 400 km.