PharmaSat 1

PharmaSat 1 [NASA]

PharmaSat 1 is the first mission in NASA MicroSat Free Flyer (µSat-FF) Project, a progressive, 4 mission, 5 year effort that is targeted towards developing and demonstrating autonomous nanosatellite space platforms and technologies to support multidisciplinary science investigations. The µSat-FF project is enabled by the GeneSat-1 and GeneBox projects, in which 5 kg Nanosatellites, organized in the 3U Cubesat configuration, were flown in 2006 in both the autonomous satellite and attached payload configurations, aboard the USAF Minotaur (TacSat 2) and Bigelow Aerospace Genesis missions, respectively. The overall goal of the initial µSat-FF Mission, PharmaSat-1, is to test and validate autonomous, in-situ bioanalytical and sample management technologies to implement a Principal Investigator defined science experiment to evaluate the efficacy of an antifungal drug agent on a biological specimen.

PharmaSat will be in a low earth orbit at 40 degrees inclination. The orbit should be nearly circular with an altitude of 390 km at the start of the mission, degrading to 200 km after approx 250 to 300 days, at which time it would de-orbit. The satellite is a triple CubeSat with a mass of approx 4 kg.