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Abstract:
The small satellite mission CHAMP was initiated and is primarily funded by the German Space Agency
(DARA) as a lead project for the East German space industry. It is defined in its main mission goals by
researchers of the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), and is conducted under lead of GFZ in
cooperation with the German Aerospace Establishment (DLR) and the industry . After completion of an
initial feasibility study (Phase A) and of the project's definition/specification phase (Phase B), followed
by a two months redesign phase (Phase ~B), CHAMP is supposed to enter into Phase C/D in late
1996.
CHAMP as a geoscientific mission with a multi-purpose and complementary payload shall substantially
contribute to one of the basic research objectives of studies of planet Earth, that is, to the
determination of the composition, structure, and dynamics of the solid planet, its oceans and
atmosphere, and its surrounding envelope of charged particles and fields.
CHAMP being one element in a timely sequence of Earth observations and platforms, satellites, and
mini-satellites could be a contributor to the acquisition of global, synoptic and long-term measurements
of global processes through space and ground instrumentation .
CHAMP shall fulfil the criteria of a small satellite mission, i.e., only a few years of development time
through the usage of existing sensors and commercial spacecraft subsystem components, and
reduced costs through protoflight approach, reduced quality standards and test efforts.
The most challenging parts of the CHAMP mission are the variety of payload components especially
the accelerometer and the magnetometers, each one with demanding environmental requirements. It
is designed to observe both the gravitational as well as the magnetic potential from one platform in
order to get a complementary scientific payback. The GPS-receiver on-board CHAMP being employed
for gravity field recovery, simultaneously will perform atmosphere and ionosphere profiling by Earth
limb sounding. It is also for the first time a three-axes accelerometer will be flown to measure with a
required accuracy of 10^8m/s2 the non-gravitational forces, e.g. air drag, perturbing the satellite's
motion.
