Eleven tiny research satellites will be launched into orbit tonight, hitching a ride with an spy satellite aboard an American Atlas V military rocket

Eleven tiny research satellites will be launched into orbit tonight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Hitching a ride with an spy satellite aboard an American rocket, they are the first in a new generation of CubeSats, small and inexpensive satellites designed to save cost by piggybacking aboard other space missions.

Watch the launch live at Space Flight Now website at 2100 BST 13 September 2012 >>>

An Atlas V stands on Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (US Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Christian Thomas)

Among these will be one shoebox-sized satellite called CINEMA, which stands for CubeSat for Ions, Neutrals, Electrons, & MAgnetic fields, that was built over three years by students and scientists including a team from Imperial College London.

Scientific instruments aboard CINEMA will help scientists study how the Earth's magnetic field is affected by the solar wind, a stream of electrically charged particles that flows out from the Sun. These particles set off the spectacular glowing aurorae that can be seen in the sky above the North and South poles, but can also cause damage to electricity grids and telecommunication networks on the ground under some conditions.

Research students from the University of California, Berkeley in the USA, Kyung Hee University in Korea, Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, and Imperial College London have designed and built the scientific instruments aboard CINEMA.

The team from Imperial's Department of Physics created a magnetometer, an instrument that measures the tiny magnetic fields in space. It also helps the satellite by providing vital information about its orientation as it orbits the Earth. Later this year CINEMA will be joined by two identical satellites that together will provide scientists with information about global changes in activity in response to changes in the solar wind.

Professor Tim Horbury, who led the project to develop Imperial's magnetometer instrument, said: "If you want to have a global picture of what's happening in the magnetic fields surrounding the Earth, you need to have a lot of spacecraft providing measurements. The magnetic field is especially important to measure, because it provides a really accurate way of spotting waves and other disturbances in space near the Earth."

Patrick Brown, who designed the magnetometer, which is called MAGIC, said "We've designed an incredibly tiny magnetic sensor - about the size of a one pound coin - so it's ideally suited to fly on these small, relatively cheap satellites, and this will provide the first opportunity to use this new technology in space."

Scientists at University of California, Berkeley assembling the CINEMA CubeSat (Credit: R Sanders)

CubeSats are miniature spacecraft of a standard shape and size, measuring up to 30 centimetres (about one foot) long and weighing approximately three kilogrammes. Originally developed by California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University, the recent miniaturization of electronics means that even such tiny spacecraft can make invaluable scientific measurements to complement those from spacecraft many times larger.

"Each satellite could remain in orbit for up to 20 years, however as the electronics are off-the-shelf components rather than space grade components, it's uncertain exactly how long they will remain operational." said Professor Horbury. Additional funding has recently been secured from the National Science Foundations of the USA and the US Air Force to build and launch a fourth CINEMA CubeSat.