On August 12, the Monitor-3 and Monitor-4 satellites, developed by the LRM Laboratory, captured the Moon’s shadow moving across the Earth’s surface over Greenland.
Specialists at the Mission Control Center calculated the satellites’ trajectories in advance, selected the optimal imaging time, and uploaded a special flight sequence to the spacecraft.
The CubeSats travel at several kilometers per second, while the Moon’s shadow also moves rapidly across the Earth’s surface. The challenge was to align the satellites’ orbits, the Sun’s position, Earth’s illumination, and the capabilities of the cameras so that the spacecraft would be over Greenland at exactly the right moment.
The calculations worked: Monitor-3 and Monitor-4 encountered the Moon’s shadow and transmitted the images back to Earth.
Other satellites also joined the observation: KuzSTU-1, UTMN-2, and Vizard-meteo.
New data is still arriving from orbit. The next step is to process and analyze the observations.
Specialists at the Mission Control Center calculated the satellites’ trajectories in advance, selected the optimal imaging time, and uploaded a special flight sequence to the spacecraft.
The CubeSats travel at several kilometers per second, while the Moon’s shadow also moves rapidly across the Earth’s surface. The challenge was to align the satellites’ orbits, the Sun’s position, Earth’s illumination, and the capabilities of the cameras so that the spacecraft would be over Greenland at exactly the right moment.
The calculations worked: Monitor-3 and Monitor-4 encountered the Moon’s shadow and transmitted the images back to Earth.
Other satellites also joined the observation: KuzSTU-1, UTMN-2, and Vizard-meteo.
New data is still arriving from orbit. The next step is to process and analyze the observations.
