Arase, formerly known asExploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG), is a scientificsatellite to study theVan Allen belts. It was developed by theInstitute of Space and Astronautical Science ofJAXA. While there was a scientist working on a similar project with the surname Arase, the satellite's name has nothing to do with him but instead named after a river beside the launch point.
It was launched aboardEpsilon launch vehicle at 11:00:00, 20 December 2016 UTC into apogee height 32250 km, perigee 214 km orbit. Subsequent perigee-up operation moved its orbit to apogee 32110 km, perigee 460 km of 565 minutes period.[2]
The Arase spacecraft is the second satellite based on SPRINT bus, afterHisaki (SPRINT-A). Arase weighs about 350 kg, measures about 1.5 m × 1.5 m × 2.7 m at launch.[3] Once in orbit, it will extend four solar panels, two 5 m masts, and four 15 m wire antennas.[3] The spacecraft is spin-stabilized at 7.5 rpm (8 seconds).[3]
Planned mission duration was for one year of scientific observation,[3] but the mission remains active over 5 years later.
Arase's launch on the enhancedEpsilon's maiden flight was originally scheduled for 2015, but was postponed to the 2016 financial year due to satellite development delays.[4]
MGF is located at the end of 5 m extended mast.[3]
PWE consists of a search coil (PWE-MSC) located at the end of another 5 m extended mast, four 15 m wire antennae (PWE-WPT), and associated electronics unit (PWE-E).[3]
S-WPIA will analyse the data obtained by other instruments.[3]
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
