Q: What happened to the Icarus satellite, did it fly?
A: The Icarus spacecraft and its team was at Marshall Space Flight center performing pre-ship testing and mission operation simulations in February 2003. At this time, following the tragedy of Space Shuttle Columbia, the decision was made by NASA to remove the ProSEDS mission from its scheduled launch date of March 29, 2003. Discussions between the International Space Station offfice, NASA Headquarters, and the ProSEDS project continued until October 2003 to evaluate the starting altitude of the mission.

Due to the combination of a drastically reduced starting altitude and a launch timeframe during a period approaching solar minimum, the electrodynamic propulsion performance of the ProSEDS system was no longer sufficient to meet the mission objectives. Furthermore, the increased aerodynamic drag relative to the electrodynamic thrust, combined with a significantly shorter mission duration due to decreased available tether power, would have made the measurement of the electrodynamic thrust effect nearly impossible. Several other mission objectives would have been compromised by this situation as well. Given that these factors would not change in the near future, and that no further launch opportunities for ProSEDS would materialize, the decision was made to terminate the ProSEDS Project.

The Icarus satellite has been shipped back to the University of Michigan from MSFC where it currently resides in the Student Space System Fabrication Lab.

Q: What does Icarus do?
A: The primary purpose of Icarus is to act as dead weight to stabilize the ProSEDS tether. In order to maximize science return, Icarus is equipped with a magnetometer and GPS receiver to infer tether dynamics.

Q: Who was Icarus and why did you name a satellite after him?
A: Icarus, son of Daedilus, is a character from Greek mythology. When his father built him a pair of wax wings to escape from their island imprisonment, he warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun so the wax would not melt. Icarus did not listen to his father, flew too close to the hot sun, and plunged to his death in the sea. The thought is that the Icarus satellite will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere at the end of its lifetime.

Q: What is the use for ED tethers?
A: Tethers, along with an electron emission device (like Field Emitter Arrays) tethers provide a means of "propellantless" propulsion. Depending upon the direction of current flow in the tether, the Lorentz force can act as a means of reboasting or deorbiting a satellite. Potential uses are for the International Space Station, saving money used for consumable propellants. Tethers can also be used in any planet with a magnetic field (Jupiter, etc.).

Q: Who are your sponsors?
A: The Icarus satellite was developed for the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Students from the University of Michigan worked with support from the College, departments, and most importantly the Space Physics Research Lab (SPRL). Corporate sponsors include TRW (special thanks to Harry Yates- solar cells), Starsys Research (thermal switch), and a bunch of others...

Q: Why was Icarus picked as a student project?
A: The scope of the Icarus project was recognized as a perfect student project. The system is relatively simple, but yet contains enough parts to put together a challenge for undergraduate and graduate students. The project was started as a class design project through the interdisciplinary Masters of Engineering Space Systems program. Since its inception in 1998, over 100 students have worked on the project.