Development and Demonstration of the Mission Control System for Artificial Meteor Generating Micro-satellites

Abstract

The Space Robotics Laboratory of Tohoku University and ALE Co., Ltd. have developed the micro-satellites “ALE-I” and “ALE-2” to demonstrate the generation of artificial meteors. These meteors will be created by the ejection of meteor particles on orbit. This mission necessitates strict safety requirements to prevent the released particles from colliding with other satellites and spacecraft. In this project, we constructed a ground system for the operation of these satellites and established an operation plan to meet their safety requirements. The ground system uses a virtual ground station interface to operate multiple ground stations around the world via an antenna sharing service. A meteor particle release simulation was conducted with ALE-2 on orbit to demonstrate and validate the ground system and operation plan. The results of this test, presented here, show that the ground system can be successfully used to conduct the artificial meteor mission and these operations meet the safety requirements.