The Small Astronomy Satellite (SAS) Program

Abstract

One of NASA's newest Explorer class satellite programs, the Small Astronomy Satellite (SAS), will provide much-needed information in the most recently studied fields of astronomy, X-ray, Gamma-ray, UV and IR. This paper will describe the basic spacecraft functions with emphasis on its key feature, the SAS control system, as proposed for early sky surveys, and the changes needed in it for later flights which will require a pointing capability of one arc-minute or better. Its flexibility and versatility for application to many different types of astronomy experiments will be examined.