Viking (Sweden)

Sweden's first satellite, Viking, was originally initiated as a means of providing experience in satellite system development and management. The mission's scientific goal was to continue the work of a series of successful sounding rockets by investigating the interaction of the solar wind with the earth's magnetosphere and the behavior of the resulting aurora borealis. The vehicle's instruments returned a large quantity of data, and completely recorded the full cycle of auroral activity. The total project cost was approximately 20 million US dollars ($FY'86).

Spacecraft
Based on the USAF Small Scientific Satellites and NASA's Atmospheric Explorers. Spin stabilized at 3 rpm with torque rods. S-band downlink at 49.6 kbit/s data rate. Power from solar cells on spacecraft body totalling 2.2 square meters, providing 80 W average power. No onboard data storage.

Payload
V-1: Electric field - measured electric field. Experiment included 4 40m wire booms and two 4m rigid booms. V-2: Magnetic field - measured magnetic field using a 3-axis fluxgate magnetometer mounted on a 2m boom. V-3: Hot plasma and energetic particles - measured several different energy ranges with 7 different sensors. V-4L: Low frequency waves - Used 2 of the V-1 wire booms plus a magnetic coil antenna on a 2m rigid boom to measure electromagnetic waves between 0 - 15 kHz. V-4H: High frequency waves - Used same sensors as V-4L to measure waves between 10 - 500 kHz. V-5: UV auroral imagers - imaged the Earth's aurora at UV frequencies between 1235A - 1600A and 1340A - 1800A.

Country of Origin	Sweden
Customer/User	Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), Canada's Center for Space Science
Manufacturer(s)	Saab-Scania, Boeing
Size	1.9m diameter, 50cm height
Orbit	811 x 13,536 km, incl. = 98.8 degrees; 262 min period
Design Life	8 months
Related Sites	The Viking Satellite

Launch Facts

Name	Int'l Desig.	Date	Site	Vehicle	Orbit	Mass(kg)
Notes
Viking	1986-019B	2/22/86	Kourou	Ariane 1	HEO	538
Studied magnetic, electric, UV properties of auroral regions