Page 70 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

Release of the ExAlta-1 CubeSat from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer on May 26, 2017. Built by University
of Alberta students, ExAlta-1 is part of a constellation of 28 CubeSats deployed to study the upper reaches
of the Earth’s atmosphere over a period of 1 to 2 years. This constellation is the result of an international
collaboration involving academia and research institutes from 23 different countries around the world,
with funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological
Development. The CubeSats conduct coordinated measurements on a poorly studied and previously
inaccessible zone of the atmosphere—the thermosphere. The project monitors different gaseous molecules
and electrical properties of the thermosphere to better understand space weather and its long-term trends.
Image credit: NASA

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