[Lamplighter]

TW, here's one description I found...


H+ Magazine
By: Peter Rothman
Published: December 9, 2013

NROL-39 Nothing is Beyond Our Reach

Formally known as*ELaNa II / GEMSAT the unclassified auxiliary mission also included a variety of NASA student designed CubeSats.
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NROL-39 *carried the Government Experimental Multi-Satellite (GEMSat) payload into orbit in a specially designed Aft Bulkhead Carrier, part of the Atlas V Centaur upper stage. The GEMSat payload contains 12 CubeSats, or “nanosatellites.”

The CubeSats perform a variety of unique scientific experiments and demonstrate high-technology operational concepts. Sponsored by the NRO’s Mission Integration Directorate and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Launch Support Program, these CubeSats were developed by a number of laboratories, universities, and government entities across the United States.

The NRO-sponsored CubeSats included:
• Two developed by Aerospace Corporation, called AeroCube-5 (AC-5),*will demonstrate new technologies for pointing and tracking between two*identical CubeSats. AC-5 will also record launch environment data such*as pressure, temperature, and vibration; and will demonstrate a deorbit*device.
• One developed by the Air Force Institute of Technology, ALICE, will test*the performance of an advanced carbon nanotube array, which has great*potential for smaller, lighter, and more energy-efficient satellite propulsion.
• Four developed by the United States Army — one called SNaP,*two SMDC-One, and one TacSat-IV — will demonstrate nanosatellite*communication capabilities.
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The NASA-sponsored CubeSats, part of NASA’s Educational Launch of*Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission, included:
• Two developed by Montana State University Space Science and*Engineering Laboratory and funded by the National Science Foundation,*called FIREBIRD, a space weather mission that will seek to resolve*questions pertaining to microbursts in the Van Allen radiation belts.
• One developed by California Polytechnic State University, IPEX, will*validate direct broadcast, autonomous science, and product delivery*technologies supporting advancement of the Intelligent Payload Module*for the proposed Hyperspectral Infrared Imager earth science decadal*survey mission.
• One developed by University of Michigan, called MCubed-2,*will demonstrate an advanced on-board data processing system.
• One developed by Medgar Evers College, City University of New York,*CUNYSAT-1, will monitor satellite spin, battery, and solar panel*efficiencies.

But then, all that gobbledegook may just be to intimidate the terrorists.