Wikipedia
Formation Autonomy Spacecraft with Thrust, Relnav, Attitude and Crosslink (or FASTRAC) is a pair of nanosatellites (respectively named Sara-Lily and Emma) developed and built by students at The University of Texas at Austin. The project is part of a program sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), whose goal is to lead the development of affordable space technology. The FASTRAC mission will specifically investigate technologies that facilitate the operation of multiple satellites in formation. These enabling technologies include relative navigation, cross-link communications, attitude determination, and thrust. Due to the high cost of lifting mass into orbit, there is a strong initiative to miniaturize the overall weight of spacecraft. The utilization of formations of satellites, in place of large single satellites, reduces the risk of single point failure and allows for the use of low-cost hardware.
In January 2005, the University of Texas won the University Nanosat-3 Program, a grant-based competition that included 12 other participating universities. As a winner, FASTRAC was given the opportunity to launch its satellites into space. The student-led team received $100,000 from AFRL for the competition portion of the project, and another $100,000 for the implementation phase. FASTRAC is the first student-developed satellite mission incorporating on-orbit real-time relative navigation, on-orbit real-time attitude determination using a single GPS antenna, and a micro-discharge plasma thruster.
FASTRAC launched on 19 November 2010 aboard a Minotaur IV rocket from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Kodiak, Alaska. Separation of the satellites from each other and cross-link communication were successfully carried out.
FASTRAC was developed under the US Air Force Research Laboratory University Nanosatellite Program, and was ranked number 32 in the Space Experiments Review Board's list of priortised spacecraft experiments in 2006. The spacecraft were expected to demonstrate Global Positioning System relative navigation and micro-charge thruster performance.
Fastrac or alternatively MC-1 engine was a pump-fed liquid rocket engine developed by NASA for use on small inexpensive, expendable rockets. Fastrac uses RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants in a gas-generator power cycle.
Ignition of engine was achieved via starter fluid injected into combustion chamber before kerosene was fed.
Propellants are fed via a single shaft, dual impeller turbo-pump.
The engine design used an inexpensive, expendable, ablatively cooled carbon fiber composite nozzle, and produced 60,000 lbf (285 kN) of thrust.
Engine system development testing of the MC-1 began in 1997 and continued until the Fastrac program was cancelled 2001, 48 tests were conducted on three engines using three separate test stands.
The engine never flew, but with NASA's cooperation much of the MC-1 design and technology was adopted by the private corporation SpaceX for its Merlin 1A engine