PRETTY serves as a flexible experimental platform for organizations and researchers to test software and firmware during live mission conditions.
The passive reflectometer on PRETTY is designed to capture and analyze signals reflected by ice, water, and land.
SATDOS enables detailed radiation data collection directly from PRETTY's orbit for the first time.
The original mission of PRETTY, planned for one year, has been extended until December 2026.
Data from PRETTY is relayed from the TU Graz ground station to research teams worldwide.
Project management and ground operations for PRETTY will shift from Beyond Gravity to TU Graz.
PRETTY has orbited for over two years in a sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude just over 500 kilometers.
PRETTY's primary scientific payload is a passive reflectometer developed by Beyond Gravity.
The Austrian Research Promotion Agency and ESA provided funding of 365,000 euros for the PRETTY mission extension.
PRETTY is equipped with the SATDOS dosimeter from Seibersdorf Laboratories, which monitors radiation exposure and its effects on electronics.
TU Graz will operate PRETTY as part of the European Space Agency's OPS-SAT Space Lab experimental program.
PRETTY has been developed by an all-Austrian consortium with Beyond Gravity Austria as the prime contractor developing the reflectometry payload.
Budget analyst Mike Tierney of Velos concluded that congressional appropriators provided for space in 2019 pretty much exactly what the DoD requested.