MIT Lincoln Laboratory Agile MicroSat Descent

MIT Lincoln Laboratory, in collaboration with Blue Canyon Technologies LLC and Enpulsion GmbH, developed the Agile MicroSat (AMS) as the first nanosatellite with suitable agility to reliably maneuver and maintain its orbit in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). VLEO operation allows higher resolution imaging for a given optical sensing aperture. Spacecraft agility provides the opportunity for earth remote sensing techniques observing transient, unpredictable Earth scenes such as agricultural or ecological stress, fire smoke plumes, coastal and riverine flooding and oil spills.AMS was launched on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 mission on May 25th, 2022. The spacecraft was operational in early June. The thruster showed vulnerability to atomic oxygen and the thruster operations were adjusted to minimize the exposure. After successfully reducing the orbit by 40km over 2 months, the thruster exhibited degraded performance and thruster operations ceased in September. Since then, active aero-braking has been used to lower the orbit and provided the opportunity to both study and improve modeling of the drag environment at low altitudes. The low-drag of Agile Microsat is achieved by placing large solar arrays knife-edged to the direction of motion, provides an 8-to-1 ratio of the drag force in the high and low-drag orientations. Camera operations are ongoing and will provide VLEO imaging. AMS will continue aero-braking operations down to 350 km altitude and then pause for low drag operations. The team will attempt to maintain attitude control through an altitude of 250 km.