MMA Design, under a contract with Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory, is providing High Watts per Kilogram (HaWK) solar arrays for six satellites that will be launched just beyond GEO on NASA’s Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) mission.
SunRISE will consist of six cubesats, each six units in size, just above GEO. These six smallsats, flying in a loose cluster about ten kilometers across, will form a virtual, radio telescope to detect and pinpoint emissions from the sun associated with solar storms. Those radio waves cannot be detected on Earth because of interference from the Earth’s ionosphere.
MMA will leverage its heritage of HaWK arrays that have previously flown on NASA missions including MarCO A and B (in support of the Mars InSight lander) and ASTERIA, as well as DoD and commercial missions including SHARC and SPARC-1. MMA HaWK arrays will also support 5 of the small satellites launching on the first SLS launch later in 2021 including NASA’s LunaH-Map, Lunar Flashlight, Near Earth Asteroid Scout (NEAScout), BioSentinel, and the JAXA EQUULEUS missions.
SunRISE is a Mission of Opportunity within the Explorers Program at NASA and the project is managed by JPL.
