SARA
Aside from its considerable involvement with the ESA programs, France also launched a modest Jupiter research mission on 17 July 1991. The SARA (Satellite for Amateur Radio Astronomy) spacecraft, designed by college students at the Ecole Superieure d'lngeniur en Electrotechnique et Electronique in Noisy le Grand, was fielded with support from CNES and French aerospace companies. The mission of the microsatellite was to monitor the Jovian atmosphere for radio emissions in pursuit of a better understanding of the giant planet's magnetosphere. The 19-kg, 0.4 m per edge, cubic SARA, which was deployed from an Ariane 4 ASAP (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads) platform, was inserted into a 770 km by 777 km, 98.54 degrees inclination orbit. Unfortunately, a malfunction prevented the return of any useful date and no further missions of this nature are firm (Reference 123).
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