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DISCO-2 – an ambitious earth observing student CubeSat for arctic climate research

2024; Frontiers Media; Volume: 5; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3389/frsen.2024.1474560

2673-6187

Andreas Kjær Dideriksen, M. F. Andersen, Julian Priest, Nikolaj Forskov Eriksen, Mads T. Frandsen, Claus Melvad, Till Rasmussen, N. H. Nielsen, Cecillie Thorup Strømsnes, Mads Juul Ahlebæk, Sigrid Samsing, Tine B. Larsen, J. P. Don, Lasse Heje Pedersen, Rune Hylsberg Jacobsen, Søren Rysgaard, Jung Min Kim, Robert Bayer, Courtney Christensen, Evald Høj Christiansen, Izabella Katharina Gosvig-Leach, Rasmus Gramstrup, Bóas Hermansson, Jesper Hesselvig, Jakob Jakobsen, Daniel Gjesse Kjellberg, Martin Lind, J. Lindhard, Mikkel Mikkelsen, Oliver Millinge, Tara Møller Moltesen, Sebastian Dahl Negendahl, A.F. Nielsen, Gustav Balslev Nielsen, Mette Ølgod Pedersen, A Platz, Paul Rosero, Slađana Savić, Ívar Óli Sigurðsson, Gustav Skjernov, Nikolaj Sørensen, Søren Sørensen, A Theil, Jacob Bay Thomsen, Nicolaj Valsted, Anna L. Vestergaard, C. Karoff,

Spacecraft and Cryogenic Technologies

The severe impact of global warming, especially in the arctic region, have a multitude of consequences spanning from sea-level rises and freshening of the ocean, to significant changes to the animal life, biodiversity and species distribution. As the arctic regions are inherently remote and can be both hazardous and difficult to reach, research to improve our understanding of the climate change impact is often limited to short term field-campaigns. Here we present the Danish DISCO-2 student CubeSat mission, designed to meet the growing need for an Earth-observing platform. This mission leverages the rapid advancements in CubeSat technology over the past decades to overcome the limitations of traditional fieldwork campaigns. DISCO-2 will assist on-going arctic climate research with a payload of optical and thermal cameras in combination with novel in-orbit data analysis capabilities. It will further be capable of performing photogrammetric observations to determine ice volumes from deteriorating glaciers and provide surface temperatures, enabling studies of heat transfer between glaciers and arctic fjords. As a student satellite, the payload capabilities will also be offered to novel student research ideas throughout the mission life time. The modularity and wide range of of-the-shelf-components for CubeSats has facilitated an immense opportunity to tailor this earth observing CubeSat to accommodate specific scientific goals and further provided students at the participating universities with an unparalleled possibility to go from an initial research idea to a running CubeSat mission.