October 1, 2001

Project Starshine

Star Traffic
This evening, when the Sun is setting, go outside and look at the sky. Among the stars you'll see a faint, flashing beacon passing over Earth. This amazing object is as bright as the North Star even though it measures just three feet across. It is a satellite called Starshine 3, and it was launched on Saturday, September 29 from Alaska.

You will not be alone as you watch this unusual and beautiful satellite cross the sky. Thousands of students around the world are watching it too — because they had a hand in building it.

Engineer with Starshine
Photo caption
Touching Space
Starshine 3 is one of a family of five satellites that students are helping to construct. They're all part of Project Starshine, an endeavor of retired aerospace engineer, Professor Gil Moore. With 54 years in the "space business," as he describes it, Professor Moore's enthusiasm for his work is infectious.

"I've always been psyched about space," he says. "During the last 25 years, my wife and I have been trying to help young people do experiments in space. Starshine is good for kids because they can really get into it. They help put the satellites together and then they contribute to the scientific research by tracking the satellites."

Thanks to Project Starshine, a lot of other people are obviously psyched about space too. Some 40,000 students in 26 countries have been involved in the project so far. It's a project for all ages too, with students from kindergarten through college taking part.

How can so many students, so spread out around the world, all work on these small satellites?

Starshine patch
Photo caption
Mirror, Mirror...
Starshine 3 is covered with 1500 mirrors, each of which is one inch in diameter. The mirrors are aluminum discs that undergo a complex process of grinding and polishing to give them maximum reflective power. This is where the huge numbers of students come in: They put in the thousands of hours necessary to polish the mirrors. This gives the students a real sense of ownership in the project, and a special incentive to watch the satellite when it's in orbit.

When all of the mirrors are attached and the Starshine satellite is in orbit, it reflects sunlight so effectively that it's clearly visible in the night sky. This is impressive when you consider the satellite's small size.

Professor Gil Moore
Photo caption


Return to Top

 

Solar Power
What will students learn from tracking Starshine 3? "We're trying to see how the upper atmosphere responds to solar storms," explains Professor Moore. During a solar storm, the Sun shoots out blasts of highly energized particles and extreme ultraviolet radiation. These blasts are known as "solar flares." Even though these flares start about 92 million miles away, their effects are still felt on Earth.

In a solar storm, "the solar extreme U.V. radiation is absorbed by the upper atmosphere and it swells up just like a balloon," explains Professor Moore. This pushes denser air up to greater altitudes than normal. The denser atmosphere increases the drag on orbiting objects, making them descend more quickly. When the altitude of an object's orbit is getting lower all the time, its orbit is said to decay.


Solar flares
Image caption

Students watching Starshine 3 will monitor its orbit closely and compare its progress with solar activity. "If the kids plot the solar extreme U.V. output of the Sun against the orbital decay, they can see that the satellite comes down more rapidly when the Sun is active than when it's quiet," explains Professor Moore. "We want to find out what happens to the orbits of the space shuttle, the space station, or any other low-Earth orbiting satellites as a result of explosions on the Sun." In the process, students will learn a lot about orbital mechanics.


How Low is
Low-Orbiting?
The Starshine 3 was deployed into orbit at an altitude of 310 miles. This makes it a "low-Earth orbiting satellite" — because it's 200-300 miles up. Space shuttles typically orbit at 200 miles, and the International Space Station tends to be at an altitude of about 250 miles.
 
It's Raining Protons!
Last week was a hectic week for Sun-watchers. The Sun spat out an X-class solar flare — the most powerful kind known. The Office of Naval Research describes the three categories of solar flares:

X-class: Major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.

M-class: Medium-sized events that can cause brief radio blackouts affecting Earth's polar regions.

C-class: These flares have few noticeable consequences on Earth.

Last week's solar flare sent a cloud of magnetic energy billowing towards Earth. The shower of highly energized protons that rained down on Earth's atmosphere actually delayed the launch of the Starshine 3. It was one of the largest solar storms of this solar cycle.

Each solar cycle lasts 11 years — the same length of time that Project Starshine will last.

Interested in seeing what's happening on the Sun now? Check out the Space Weather Web site.

  

Protecting Traffic in Orbit
Students will contribute the data they gather about the Starshine 3's orbit to the Project Web site. This will be used alongside data gathered by the U.S. Space Command's precision tracking equipment.

Professor Moore explains how researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory will use the data: "They are re-writing the codes that enable them to predict where a satellite will be a week from now or a month from now. "

This knowledge will enable NASA to stop the space shuttle or satellites from coming too close to space "junk" — debris that's floating around in Earth's upper atmosphere. "The more precisely they know the drag factor and the density of the atmosphere, the more precisely they can define the hazard to the shuttle or space station," says Professor Moore.

So, by collecting data on the Starshine Project, students are assisting scientists in efforts that could help protect important space assets. Now that's a great reason to get psyched about space!


Space shuttle
Photo caption
 
The Rocky Road to a Launch: The Week of September 24
It's a strange coincidence that the very phenomenon the Starshine satellites were designed to study — solar storms — actually kept Starshine 3 grounded during the week leading up to its launch. It was a week which saw some frenetic solar activity. The shower of highly-energized particles from the Sun that rained down on Earth would have been bad news for the launch rocket's delicate electronics. Or, as Professor Moore puts it, "The guidance system on this bird would have gotten cooked royally if we'd launched early in the week!" The launch was postponed until conditions in space were more favorable.

Professor Moore describes the week's X-class solar flare as "a beauty" which he was sorry to miss: "I wanted to be up there measuring the response of the atmosphere! But flares are like buses — there'll be another one down the road soon enough."
 		 

Want to Get Involved?
Starshine 3 is in orbit — but the Starshine Project is far from over. Right now, Professor Moore is waiting to see if Starshine 4 and 5 can hitch a ride on space shuttle mission STS-114 in 2003. There will be news of this in October. We'll keep you posted, but in the meantime, you can find out more at the Starshine Project Web site.


Engineer with Starshine satellite


Return to Top

 

Learn More
These activities require Logal Express.
Get a free trial subscription now.
  • Students tracking Starshine 3 will become familiar with orbital mechanics. High school students can investigate orbital mechanics using the gravity model in the High School Physics Gateways unit, Mechanics: Gravity.


  • The Starshine satellite is covered in highly reflective flat aluminum mirrors. This unit on Geometric Optics lets high school students study how optical systems project light and images. Also from High School Physics Gateways.


  • Middle school students can learn about light in this unit, Light, in Middle School Science Gateways.
    •
Read more about solar flares and other solar activity in the Riverdeep article, The Space Weather Report.

Teachers: In this Riverdeep article especially for the classroom, Solar Storm Alert, you can guide your students through an investigation of solar activity.


More Links


Kodiak Star mission patch
A New Gateway
to Space
The mission that carried Starshine 3 into orbit was the Kodiak Star mission. It was named for its launch site, Kodiak Island, Alaska.

Cape Canaveral, Florida, has been launching missions into space since 1950. But the Kodiak Star is the first mission to blast off into space from Alaska.

The mission patch is shown above. The outline of Alaska is shown, and the launch site is marked with a red dot.

Return to Top