The Artemis Project: Picosatellite-Based Missions to Study VLF Phenomenon

During the 1998-99 academic year, six Santa Clara University undergraduate students conducted an experimental investigation of developing science missions with very small, very inexpensive spacecraft. Known as the Artemis project, this effort resulted in the development of three sub-kilogram picosatellite vehicles which are manifested for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in September 1999. Two of these satellites will collaboratively gather data on lightning as part of a broad study of space telecommunications. The three Artemis picosatellites were developed in 10 months at a total program cost of $8,000. This paper motivates the applicability of pi co satellite missions, describes the Artemis project goals, and provides a technical description of the satellites