In March of 2002, little CHIPSat, built for UC
Berkeley by SpaceDev, will be launched as a hitchhiker
on a Boeing Delta 2 rocket into low earth orbit to
begin gathering unique space science data.
The tiny, earth-orbiting space science satellite, the
smallest and least expensive ever funded by NASA, will
carry the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer
(CHIPS) instrument, built under the direction of Dr.
Mark Hurwitz of the UC Berkeley Space Sciences
Laboratory. This is the first in NASA’s new University
Explorer (UNEX) mission series, and will create large
amounts of new human knowledge about the structure and
evolution of the universe.
UNEX missions are the smallest, least inexpensive,
innovative missions that make up the UNEX part of
NASA’s Explorer Program, run by Dave Pierce:
http://www.wff.nasa.gov/~code850/pages/unex.html
University Explorers are the newest and most bold of
the Explorers Program under Tony Comberiate:
http://fpd.gsfc.nasa.gov/410/index.html
Space science Explorers are part of the overall NASA
Office of Space Science, run by Dr. Ed Weiler:
The UC Berkeley CHIPS instrument was competitively
selected by science peer review committees to assist
the Structure & Evolution of the Universe program,
under NASA’s Dr. Al Bunner, to acquire important new
human knowledge:
http://universe.gsfc.nasa.gov/
SpaceDev is the leading U.S. company designing and
building small, inexpensive earth-orbiting satellites
and deep space spacecraft in order to advance human
knowledge by dramatically reducing the cost of space
science missions. SpaceDev is a publicly traded small
business (Nasdaq OTC trading symbol: SPDV).
http://www.spacedev.com/missions/chipsat.htm
We are very excited about the role our young,
innovative little company is playing in this important
space science mission: mission design, satellite
design, assembly, test, instrument integration, launch
vehicle integration, and mission control and
operations, all from our new HQ facilities in the San
Diego area.
If you would like to be on the SpaceDev email list,
please just send an email to the “subscribe” address
below. We only send out an email about once per month
with very brief news about our missions and
accomplishments. If you do not wish to keep informed
about our progress on CHIPSat and other innovative
space activities, do nothing and you will not hear
from us again, but please do subscribe and stayed
informed about how we are making access to space
faster and cheaper.
Sincerely,
Jim Benson
Chairman, CEO
jim@spacedev.com
