Status of the hardware and software at the final stages of the project MIMOSA Original Research Article

The realization of hardware of the Czech satellite MIMOSA (MIcroMeasurements Of Satellite Acceleration) is at its final stages. Its purpose is to detect all disturbing accelerations of the non-gravitational origin by a highly sensitive three-axial electrostatically compensated microaccelerometer with a cubic proof-mass. All satellite systems are now being tested from the point of view of the possible errors appearing from the technical solutions chosen. The error analysis of the separate instrumentation systems and of the integrated satellite is taken into account when defining the simulated observations. The software prepared for the reduction of the data and their analysis includes a new exact determination of the drag coefficient CD based on the original formulas and its dependence on altitude and solar activity during the satellite lifetime. The magnitude of the drag coefficient CD [Sehnal 1983] is taken into account when an example of improvement of the constants of the atmospheric model TD88 [Sehnal 1995] is performed on the simulated data. A similar procedure is taken into account during calibration of the accelerometer using the direct solar radiation pressure effects when the satellite is near apogee.