17 September 2009, 15:55:07 (2009-09-17UTC15:55:07Z) UTC[1]
Rocket
Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat
Launch site
Baikonur Site 31/6
End of mission
Last contact
March–April 2013
Orbital parameters
Reference system
Geocentric
Regime
Low Earth
Semi-major axis
7,197.67 kilometres (4,472.42 mi)
Eccentricity
0.0004373
Perigee altitude
823 kilometres (511 mi)
Apogee altitude
829 kilometres (515 mi)
Inclination
98.55 degrees
Period
101.28 minutes
RAAN
105.39 degrees
Argument of perigee
71.58 degrees
Epoch
25 February 2014, 08:51:29 UTC[2]
BLITS (Ball Lens In The Space) is a Russian satellite launched on September 17, 2009, as a secondary payload on a Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The satellite is totally passive and spherical, and is tracked using satellite laser ranging (SLR) by the International Laser Ranging Service.[3] The design of BLITS is based on the optical Luneburg lens concept. The retroreflector is a multilayer glass sphere; it provides uniform reflection characteristics when viewed within a very wide range of angles, and can provide a cross-section sufficient for observations at low to medium orbit heights. A similar design was already tested on a smaller laser reflector carried on board of the METEOR-3M spacecraft launched on December 10, 2001.[4]
The purpose of the mission was to validate the spherical glass retroreflector satellite concept and obtain SLR (Satellite Laser Ranging) data for solution of scientific problems in geophysics, geodynamics, and relativity. The BLITS allows millimeter and submillimeter accuracy SLR measurements, as its "target error" (uncertainty of reflection center relative to its center of mass) is less than 0.1 mm. An additional advantage is that the Earth's magnetic field does not affect the satellite orbit and spin parameters, unlike retroreflectors incorporated into active satellites. The BLITS allows the most accurate measurements of any SLR satellites, with the same accuracy level as a ground target.[5]
The satellite was inserted into an 832 km (517 mi) Sun-synchronous orbit, with an inclination of 98.85º.[6] The satellite was spinning at a spin period of 5.6 seconds around the axis normal to its orbit plane, allowing laser light to be reflected in short bursts because only half of the satellite is covered in a reflective coating. As the satellite is made of glass, minimal in-flight spin slowdown was expected since there were no conducting parts where currents interacting with the Earth magnetic field can be induced.[7]
The expected operative life was at least five years, but the mission was interrupted in 2013 after a collision with space debris.[7][8]
^"BLITS". International Laser Ranging Service. Archived from the original on 2013-10-17. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
^"BLITS Satellite details 2009-049G NORAD 35871". N2YO. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
^Pearlman, M.; Arnold, D.; Davis, M.; Barlier, F.; Biancale, R.; Vasiliev, V.; Ciufolini, I.; Paolozzi, A.; Pavlis, E. C.; Sośnica, K.; Bloßfeld, M. (November 2019). "Laser geodetic satellites: a high-accuracy scientific tool". Journal of Geodesy. 93 (11): 2181–2194. Bibcode:2019JGeod..93.2181P. doi:10.1007/s00190-019-01228-y. S2CID 127408940.
^"Spherical Retroreflector with an Extremely Small Target Error: International Experiment in Space" (PDF). 13th International Workshop on Laser Ranging. Toward Millimeter Accuracy. NASA.
^"BLITS: spin parameters and its optical response measured by the Graz 2kHz SLR system" (PDF).
^ abCite error: The named reference EOportal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Russian BLITS Satellite hit by Space Debris". Spaceflight101: Space News and Beyond. 9 March 2013. Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 16 April 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
language Toyota Mark II Blit, a car Blits (disambiguation) This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Blit. If an internal link led...
that a collision happened between BLITS and a space debris fragment. As a result, an abrupt change occurred of the BLITS orbit parameters (a decrease of...
Blits or BLITS may refer to: BLITS, a Russian satellite launched in 2009 Black & Lane's Ident Tones for Surround Jan Blits (born 1943), American educational...
Bit blit (also written BITBLT, BIT BLT, BitBLT, Bit BLT, Bit Blt etc., which stands for bit block transfer) is a data operation commonly used in computer...
BlitWorks is a Spanish video game developer based in Barcelona, Spain. Founded in 2012, the company is best known for porting several games such as Fez...
The Toyota Mark II Blit (Japanese: トヨタ・マークIIブリット, Toyota Māku II Buritto) is a mid-size station wagon manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota. It...
during World War II. She was murdered together with her husband Samuel Blits, their six-year-old daughter Nanny and their two-year-old son Alfred in...
the early 1990s. Blits and Gottfredson succeeded, and were allowed to accept funds from the organization. "NAS Delaware Head Jan Blits Keynotes Tomorrow...
and Peaseblossom. Brooks 1979. Blits 2003, p. 46. Blits 2003, p. 43. White 1960, p. 344. Weiner 1971, p. 339. Blits, Jan H. (2003). The Soul of Athens:...
spout, a feature of the kettles a tinker often mends. Brooks 1979. Blits 2003, p. 43. Blits, Jan H. (2003). The Soul of Athens: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's...
"ILRS Missions: BLITS". International Laser Ranging Service. Archived from the original on 2013-02-20. Retrieved 2013-02-20. "BLITS (Ball Lens In The...
ISBN 978-1-4786-3580-2. OCLC 1031145493. Hall 2018, p. 14. Anagnostopoulos 2013, p. 4. Blits 1999, pp. 58–63. Evans 2006. Aristotle 1984, pp. Introduction. Shields 2016...
A Bachelor of Literature (文学学士; B.Lit.) is one of thirteen statutory undergraduate academic degrees in China. The basic duration of study is four years...
game. The name comes from the bit blit operation of the 1973 Xerox Alto, which stands for bit-block transfer. A blit operation is more than a memory copy...
1 cu in) 1JZ version was produced from 1990 to 2007 (last sold in the Mark II Blit Wagon and Crown Athlete). Cylinder bore and stroke is 86 mm × 71.5 mm (3...
physically or logically incapable of thinking. The first of these stories was "BLIT" (Interzone, 1988); others include "What Happened at Cambridge IV" (Digital...
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would debut under the agency in the second half of 2023 as the boy band BLIT. The agency explained that the group's name is an acronym for "Boldly Leaping...
Kijang/Stallion/Tamaraw/Revo/TUV Lexcen Light Stout Macho Mark II Mark II Blit Mark II Qualis Mark X Mark X ZiO Massy Dyna Master MasterAce Masterline Matrix...
Spelunky 2 is a 2020 platform video game developed by Mossmouth and BlitWorks. It is the sequel to Spelunky (2008) and was released for PlayStation 4 and...
Kijang/Stallion/Tamaraw/Revo/TUV Lexcen Light Stout Macho Mark II Mark II Blit Mark II Qualis Mark X Mark X ZiO Massy Dyna Master MasterAce Masterline Matrix...
Kijang/Stallion/Tamaraw/Revo/TUV Lexcen Light Stout Macho Mark II Mark II Blit Mark II Qualis Mark X Mark X ZiO Massy Dyna Master MasterAce Masterline Matrix...
Global Information
