Nanosatellites

        Over the past few weeks I have discussed the transit technique and how it is used to locate exoplanets. I have looked at that the concept of transits and the different light curves that can form. Last week I discussed the complex light curves that can arise when there are binary systems.  There is a prototype of a satellite that well be focused on finding Earth sized planets around sun like stars. These satellites are small and can range from 1 to 10kg and are made of four components. The prototype of the satellite is shown in the figure below.

Figure obtained from: http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/09/exoplanetsat-and-other-things-to-do.html

        When the satellites are put into orbit around the Earth they will be concentrating their lenses at the brightest stars in the sky. Their hope is to be able to get light curves from planets that orbit around these stars. These satellites will get into their orbits by being piggybacked by space crafts. The CubeSats are confined to orbits that are low the Earth because there is no propulsion systems that are available that would fit into this small scale. There has not been a launch of these satellites yet but they are supposed to start to launch these in 2013.  There are benefits to these satellites over others. One of these advantages is that they are cost efficient and if damaged they can just sent another one up. One may also think that because of the small size of these satellites they would be a better chance for them to get damaged. This is not true the fact is that because they are so small there is less of a chance that they will get hit. They also have a huge amount of technologies that fit into the small satellite. They have CCD as well as CMOS and fine and rough pointing so that they are able to get the transit curves of earth like planets. They also have heaters that control the heat to as much as 10mK which reduces the noise.  In the future the satellites may be able to do follow ups to other satellites surveys to see if there are exoplanets around stars. They may also be able to see the composition of the atmosphere around the planets. Here is another example of how cutting edge the transit method is becoming.