The Danish Small Satellite Programme is a reality!

In 1997 The Danish Space Board defined a study entitled “Danish Small Mission Opportunities Study” with the objective of clarifying the interest for future Danish small satellite missions as successors to the Danish Ørsted Mission, which was successfully launched 23. February 1999. The study concluded that there was a vast interest for such successor missions and that there was a basis for the establishment of a small satellite programme within Denmark.

In the beginning of 1998 the initiation of the programme was ensured with an initial envelope of 8 M$ from 1998 to 2001 funded by the Danish Research Councils. The first project was to be the participation in the Argentine SAC-C mission with a set of instruments to map the magnetic field similar to the main payload on the Danish Ørsted satellite.

The plan is to deliver the flight HW in the beginning of 1999 with an expected launch of SAC-C in December 1999. In spring 1998 the so-called “Board for the Danish Small Satellite Programme” established by the Research Councils, issued an Announcement of Opportunity. This was done to ensure that all the exiting ideas for new Danish missions had the possibility of getting evaluated. 8 proposals were received and during the summer 1998 these proposals went through the first evaluation process which resulted in a selection of 4 proposals.

These proposals were hereafter requested to prepare a detailed mission proposal and during the summer of 1999 the next Danish Small Satellite Mission will be selected. The following gives an overall introduction to the SAC-C MMP mission as well as to the four remaining proposals, which currently forms the basis for the small satellite programme.