Observations of Nanosatellites and their Effect on the Operation of Military and Civil Satellites

Abstract

The observation of cosmic gamma-ray bursts from satellites are continous since the 1960s, though these satellites were originally designed to detect the gamma rays emitted by nuclear bomb tests. The discovery these events with extreme energy emission occuring far from our planet was a „side effect” of this goal. However, gamma-ray flashes from the direction of the Earth were also detected, the nature of which were not resembling the ones from atomic bomb tests. Nanosatellites, compared to normal satellites is cheaper to launch to their orbits and this gives opportunity to their more frequent replacement as the sensitivity of the measuring devices aboard increases. They are suitable of real-time monitoring of space weather as the detection of the rapid variations in the radiation belts of Earth has a major impact on the safety of other military and civil satellites.