The Microvariablity and Oscillations of Stars (MOST ) mission is a low-cost microsatellite designed to detect low-degree acoustic oscillations (periods of minutes) with micromagnitude precision in solartype stars and metal-poor subdwarfs. There are also plans to detect light reflected from giant, short-period, extrasolar planets and the oscillations of roAp stars and the turbulent variability in the dense winds of Wolf-Rayet stars. This paper describes the experiment and how we met the challenge of ultraprecise photometry despite severe constraints on the mass, volume, and power available for the instrument. A side-viewing, 150 mm aperture Rumak-Maksutov telescope feeds two frame-transfer CCDs, one for tracking and the other for science. There is a single 300 nm wide filter centered at 525 nm. Microlenses project Fabry images of the brighter ( ) target V ≤ 10 stars onto the science CCD. Fainter target stars will be focused directly elsewhere on the CCD. MOST was launched on 2003 June 30 into a low-Earth, Sun-synchronous, polar orbit allowing stars between Ϫ19Њ and ϩ36Њ declination to be viewed continuously for up to 60 days. Attitude is controlled by reaction wheels and magnetotorquers. A solar safety shutter over the telescope diagonal is the only other moving part. Accumulated photometry will be used to calibrate response across the target field stop, and data will be compressed and downloaded to three dedicated ground stations.

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MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars / Microvariabilite et Oscillations STellaire) is a Canadian microsatellite mission intended to detect rapid photometric oscillations at theμmag level in stars brighter thanV∼ 6. This limit is set primarily by the 15-cm aperture of the MOST telescope. The small size and mass of the MOST bus (similar to a suitcase) sets a limit on the pointing accuracy of about ±10 arcsec. To achieve the required photometric precision under these conditions, the MOST focal plane features a set of Fabry microlenses which can spread the target starlight into a pupil image of the telescope onto a CCD. The large size (∼1600 pixels) and positional stability (±0.1 pixel) of these images makes MOST insensitive to CCD flat-fielding errors. MOST is currently on schedule to be launched in early 2002.

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