30 June 2013

CANADIAN SATELLITE SERVES ABOVE AND BEYOND

Canada’s first space telescope plays its cosmic game in overtime

Canadians are known for overcoming harsh weather conditions and extreme environments. Canada’s first space telescope is marking a decade working under the extreme environment of Earth orbit, and it’s still going strong.  

Launched on 30 June 2003, the suitcase-sized satellite is called MOST, for Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (the types of phenomena it studies). Intended to be a one-year mission to observe a total of ten stars, MOST is about to celebrate its tenth birthday in space, having collected ultra-precise data on over 5000 stars.

“We originally nicknamed it the ‘Humble Space Telescope,’” jokes MOST Mission Scientist and University of British Columbia astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews, “but we should really call it ‘The Little Telescope That Could.’”

MOST’s marathon might be thought of as a relay race, where the first team member was Canada’s first satellite, Alouette 1. Launched in September 1962, Alouette was expected to last a year, but operated for ten, collecting over a million images of the Earth’s ionosphere. “At the time, satellite batteries had a rated lifetime of about a year in space,” notes Matthews. “Alouette’s batteries would have made the Energizer Bunny jealous.”  

MOST’s feat of parlaying one year into ten (and counting) has astronomers drawing comparisons to the IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer) satellite.  IUE was planned to run for 3 years, but its mission lasted 18.  The Hubble Space Telescope has operated for 23 years, but that’s after five repair and servicing ‘house calls’ by space shuttle astronauts.

Prof. Matthews puts MOST’s endurance into a truly Canadian perspective. “Games during this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs have gone to multiple overtimes. MOST is about to enter its tenth period of overtime.” Continuing the hockey analogy, “MOST achieves goals rather than scoring them. But if it did score, it already has a ‘hat trick’: 1. Discoveries that are helping rewrite the textbooks. 2. Technology that’s spawned a new generation of Canadian satellites. 3. A training tool for students to become Canada’s next generation of virtual space explorers.”  Matthews adds, “And the game’s not over.”