Canadian Advanced Nanospace E Xperiment Program - CanX-2

CanX-2

The mission of the CanX-2 nanosatellite, weighing 3.5 kilograms, is to evaluate new technologies that will be used on the CanX-4/CanX-5 dual satellite mission in 2009 to demonstrate controlled formation flying in space. It is hoped that this formation flying technology will allow larger missions for high resolution Earth observation and interferometric imaging that can also be used for space astronomy. The technologies to be tested on the CanX-2 nanosatellite included:

1. A new propulsion system
2. Custom radios
3. Attitude sensors and actuators
4. A commercial GPS receiver
5. A nadir-pointed infrared spectrometer for pollution monitoring (Argus)

In addition to evaluating these technologies, the satellite will also perform experiments for other university researchers across Canada. These experiments include a GPS radio occulation experiment to characterize the upper atmosphere, an atmospheric spectrometer to measure greenhouse gases (Argus) developed by York University, and a network communications experiment. It will also carry out several space materials experiments.

CanX-2 was launched on 28 April 2008 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) as part of the NLS-4 group of satellites, aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-9.

According to the manufacturer of the reaction wheel used on CanX-2, "The wheel has been turned on and spun is performing properly on orbit."