Vehicle close to launch Published March 21, 2011 By Michael P. Kleiman 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Kirtland Air Force Base, NM -- Research and development spacecraft scheduled for 2012 flight Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. For the Demonstration and Science Experiments satellite program, that phrase rings true. Initiated in spring 2004, the DSX space flight experiment, led by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate, has scheduled an October 2012 launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for its research and development satellite, which features 14 payloads under three main experiments. Currently involved in the assembly, integration and testing phase to be completed in October 2011, the DSX spacecraft has been constructed around the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter - ESPA for short - ring developed through Air Force Small Business Innovative Research funding by CSA Engineering Inc., Albuquerque, almost seven years ago. DSX represents the third mission for the ESPA ring. It was initially flown during the Department of Defense's Space Test Program-1 in March 2007 when it held six separate satellites. Then, from June 18 to Oct. 9, 2009, the structure contained the six panels comprising NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which achieved historic significance by detecting water on the moon. Attached to the DSX satellite's four-port ESPA ring are two non-separating components: the payload and avionics modules. The former houses the three major experiments and the latter serves as the spacecraft bus. In addition, the satellite consists of two deployable structures, a horizontal Y antenna (about 240 feet in length) and a vertical Z antenna (roughly 48-50 feet in length). Wiring for very low frequency electromagnetic waves runs through both appendages. "DSX is a collaborative mission with involvement from AFRL, NASA, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, United Launch Alliance and others. It is a huge team effort," said Mark Scherbarth, DSX program manager. Projected orbit for the DSX spacecraft will be 6,000 kilometers (3,720 miles) by 12,000 kilometers (7,440 miles). While operating in medium Earth orbit, the experimental satellite, without propulsion or global positioning system, will circumnavigate the Van Allen radiation belts, which are divided into two separate areas: an outer belt comprised of energized electrons and an inner one comprised of a mixture of electrons and protons. DSX's primary mission, the Wave-Particle Interaction Experiment, will transmit and receive VLF waves in the 3 to 750-kilohertz range and quantify their impact on the trapped electrons in the MEO environment. The Space Weather Experiment will attempt to characterize the high- and low-energy proton fluence, radiation dose rates, local magnetic fields and pitch angle distribution in between the two belts. Finally, the last key experiment, the Space Environment Effects Experiment, will use several sensors to analyze a variety of energetic particles' effects on electronics and new materials. Approximately two gigabytes of data will be collected from the satellite's payloads each day during the one-year mission. "We will be flying new thermal and structural materials on the satellite so as to understand the physics of how they break down in the high-radiation environment," said Scherbarth. "DSX will validate science and technology for wave-particle interactions and will advance knowledge of the space environment's impact on satellite components."