Assembly of the flight version of the Mayak spacecraft began at the Moscow Polytechnic University. At the same time, the project team started sending gifts to the project sponsors at Boomstarter. Thus, the preparation of the satellite to orbital launching is on the home straight.
Assembly of the flight version of the Mayak spacecraft began at the Moscow Polytechnic University. At the same time, the project team started sending gifts to the project sponsors at Boomstarter. Thus, the preparation of the satellite to orbital launching is on the home straight.
At present, the parts received from manufacturers have passed the entrance control and are stored in the Spacecraft Laboratory of the Moscow Polytechnic University. The assembly is being conducted by students and cosmonaut enthusiasts. In the course of ongoing work, they will create the flight version of the spacecraft and its dimensions and weight model, which is built at the back-up of the main device.
After assembly and “on-desk” functional tests, the flight version will be put into climatic and vacuum chambers where it will be exposed to high and low temperatures, as well as to vacuum. Then the spacecraft will be tested for the effects of overloads, vibrations and shock impacts that occur when flying on a launch vehicle. At the end of the work, the satellite will be packed and sent to Baikonur.
The launch of the MAYAK satellite as part of the additional useful load of the Canopus-V-IK spacecraft is scheduled in October 2016 from the Baikonur Spaceport at the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage rocket.
The Mayak project is developed by young engineers on the site of the Moscow Polytechnic University, the former University of Mechanical Engineering (MAMI), as part of the “Modern Cosmonautics” educational program, with the involvement of cosmonautics enthusiasts who participate in the project development. The Mayak spacecraft is intended to promote cosmonautics and to enhance the attractiveness of the scientific and technical education among the Russian youth. After reaching the orbit, satellite will open a solar reflector in the form of a pyramid made of metallized polymer film, to become the brightest star in the night sky, visible from all cities of the Earth.
The scientific goals of the project include testing an aerodynamic braking device in a real flight condition, which will later be used for pulling space debris from orbit. Tracking the satellite’s flight in the upper atmosphere will provide new information about the air density at a high altitude. In addition, the Mayak’s solar reflector will be used as a reference to verify the calculations of the apparent stellar magnitude of space objects.