BRITE-Constellation Nov. 2010 BRITE Satellites Cubic form factor (20cm/side) with mass < 8kg Cubic form factor (20cm/side) with mass < 8kg Pre-deployed

BRITE-Constellation Nov. 2010BRITE-Constellation Nov. 2010

BRITE SatellitesBRITE Satellites

Cubic form factor (20cm/side) with Cubic form factor (20cm/side) with mass < 8kgmass < 8kg

Pre-deployed antennas and boomsPre-deployed antennas and booms

Telescope (Blue and Red):Telescope (Blue and Red): 11 Megapixel CCD11 Megapixel CCD Aperture = 3cmAperture = 3cm FOV = 24FOV = 24 30 arcsec/pixel 30 arcsec/pixel

Three-axis attitude control (Three-axis attitude control (≈1.5 ≈1.5 arcminute stability)arcminute stability)

UHF and S-Band communicationUHF and S-Band communication










BRITE Instruments - TelescopesBRITE Instruments - Telescopes

5 lens system plus filter & baffle

24 deg FOV, telecentriclow distortion, minimal vignetting

RED designBLUE design


good performance at high (+20C) temperatureslow power consumption and reasonable price

ReadNoise ~15e rms

KODAK KA11002

BRITE DetectorsBRITE Detectors


BRITE - FiltersBRITE - Filters


BRITE – Point Spread Function

0.50

+0.3

0.73

+0.2 +0.1

ZEMAX Model PSF - 5 deg offsets BRITE Blue

-0.1 -0.2 -0.3

1.07 0.83 0.61 0.52

intra focalextra focal

0.0

1.29

best focusdesign red: rms scatter in mmagblack: CCD distance in [mm]


BRITE Point Spread FunctionBRITE Point Spread Function

BRITE Blue PSF 5 deg offsets

8 pixels diameter – 80 pixels carry signal ~30“/pixel


BRITE – Field Of ViewBRITE – Field Of View

2670 pixel

4000 pixel

30“/pixel


BRITE-Constellation Nov. 2010BRITE-Constellation Nov. 2010up to 15 (32x32pixel) ROI/Raster

Region of Interest ROI/Raster


BRITE Onboard Data Processing


BRITE Onboard Data Processing

processed data:

sections:

RnnnB1-4 ... backgroundsRnnnA1-2 ... apertures

for each background median and sigma are

calculated+

the sum of signals valuesencompassed in the two

apertures

a total of 10 valuesH pix

V pix

RnnnB4

RnnnB2 RnnnB3

RnnnB1

BW pix

BW pix

ROI Rnnn

RnnA1

RnnnA2

X1Y1

Y2X2

BW ... width of background [pixels]


BRITE Photometric PerformanceBRITE Photometric Performance

mag(V) = 0-> 1.3 sec / 14 exp per min



mag(V)

scat

ter


BRITE Orbit

Low Earth Sun-Synchronous Dawn Dusk Orbit

820 km, LTDN 6am

orbit period ~ 101min

UniBRITE and BRITE-AUSTRIA will be launched on the same rocket into:

SUN


BRITE Launcher

Madras


BRITE Ground Stations

Primary Ground Station: IKS – TU Graz

Additional Locations:

UTIAS – Toronto Canada

TU Wien

IfA Uni Wien

Minimum Data Rate 2MB per day


BRITE Target Stars

40 proposals have been submitted 13 PI‘s and their teams Austria (13), Australia (1), Belgium (2), Bulgaria (1), Canada (4), Croatia (1), Germany (6), Iran (1), Poland (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), U.K. (3) and USA (3)

O, B and Be stars, beta Cephei stars, hot Supergiants, delta Scuti variables, gamma Doradus pulsators, roAp / CP stars, red Giants , eclipsing binaries and more

BRITE CANDIDATE TARGET STAR CATALOG

BRITE-sky: a target fields evaluations tool


BRITE AO-I Overview

• the first announcement of opportunity was released in Sep 2008 – deadline Nov 2008

• an initial review of the proposals was carried out in Dec 2008

• proposers were given a chance to supplement their target star lists and assign weights to objects deadline Feb 2009

• finally we got 42 proposals with more than 6000 candidate targets


BRITE AO-I Proposals Overview

42 proposals have been submitted PIs from 13 countries Austria (14), Australia (1), Belgium (2), Bulgaria (1), Canada (4), Croatia (1), Germany (6), Iran (1), Poland (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), U.K. (3) and USA (3)


BRITE TARGET STAR CATALOG


BRITE Targets Evaluation

weight individual stars in proposals

weight the scientific merit of each proposal

calculate the weighted density of stars accross the sky

select the fields with highest density which are seperate properly in RA

invesigate fields that are observable all year

BRITE_sky : BRITE Targets Display and Field Investigation Tool


BRITE Targets Evaluation

four commissioning fields were tentatively selected by BEST in June 2009

criteria were: distribution in RA to cover all seasons real time access to ground stations potential scientifc content

cf1 RA= 5.5h DEC= 0.0d (Orion)cf2 RA=10.8h DEC= +11.7d (Leo)cf3 RA=15.9h DEC= 0.0d (Ser)cf4 RA=22.0h DEC= +60.5d (Cep)


BRITE Commissioning Fields

40 proposals have been submitted 13 PI‘s and their teams Austria (13), Australia (1), Belgium (2), Bulgaria (1), Canada (4), Croatia (1), Germany (6), Iran (1), Poland (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), U.K. (3) and USA (3)


BRITE CANDIDATE TARGET STAR CATALOG

BRITE-sky: a target fields evaluations tool


maximize output of mission maximize output of mission

required 15min observations of one field/orbitrequired 15min observations of one field/orbit

the orbit period will be ~101minthe orbit period will be ~101min

observing one of more fields per orbit observing one of more fields per orbit

data volume needs to be in checkdata volume needs to be in check

BRITE Observing Strategy



Lau

nch

Year 1 Year 2comm

2m

Field 1 Field 1

Field 2 Field 2

Field 3 – all year access

Considerations for one pair of (Blue-Red) Satellites

~100min



shared orbit observations

StarField 1

StarField 2


BRITE Observing Strategy1 orbit (~101min)

StarField 1

StarField 2


BRITE Project Status

http://www.brite-constellation.at

Hardware development to Hardware development to be completed by Dec 2010be completed by Dec 2010

Completion of the twoCompletion of the two satellites in March-2011satellites in March-2011

Launch is schedule Launch is schedule for June 2011 for June 2011

Documents

BRITE-Constellation Nov. 2010 BRITE Satellites Cubic form factor (20cm/side) with mass < 8kg Cubic form factor (20cm/side) with mass < 8kg Pre-deployed