MXL’s first pair of coordinated satellites are scheduled to launch in 4 days. This will be the first part of a constellation that we hope grows with additional nodes for space weather monitoring and technology demonstrations. The Enhanced Tandem Beacon Explorers (E-TBEx) will map the Earth’s upper atmosphere to characterize how plasma bubbles develop in Continue Reading »
On April 15, 2019, MXL’s Project Strato launched its second iteration of the LED Initial Testing Experiment (LITE), a technology demonstration mission that aims to improve optical trackability of small satellites by equipping them with LEDs that can be seen from telescopes on the ground. A successful LITE mission shall gather dynamics and telemetry data Continue Reading »
By Matthew Szczerba.
The thirty-first flight of MXL’s Strato high-altitude ballooning project launched from a skatepark in Marshall, MI at 10:47 pm local time on May 10, 2018. The mission, called Strato LITE (LED Initial Testing Experiment), carried two prototype LED panels for MXL’s next CubeSat Continue Reading »
The Michigan eXploration Laboratory has begun research and development on its tenth mission, PHAROS (PHased ARray Optical Satellite), which is an optical orbit determination experiment utilizing light emitting diodes (LEDs). The name of the mission comes from the Lighthouse of Alexandria, named Pharos, which served Continue Reading »
The TBEx flight build is underway. Led by Nathanael England, the MXL team is building the two TBEx satellites and preparing them for final environmental testing. TBEx is scheduled to launch in mid 2018 as part of the STP-2 mission onboard a Falcon Heavy.
TBEX, the Tandem Beacon Experiment (TBEx), consists of a tandem pair Continue Reading »