amal chandran, pi, lasp/university of...

Amal Chandran,

PI, LASP/University of Colorado

2017 INSPIRE WORKSHOP

Ionospheric studies with cubesats:

INSPIRESat-1 carrying the Compact Ionosphere Probe:

The Colorado Space Weather Experiment

• Funded by the NSF

• Launched in 2012

• operated for 28mo

• Collected over 100MB of

Science Data

• Generated over 19 peer

reviewed publications

Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope

LASP Cubesats

• First NASA SMD CubeSat

• Launched Dec 6, 2015

• Deployed May 2016

• Achieved full success

• S/N 001 BCT XACT

• Coordinated in AES projects

course

• Reentry May 2017

• MinXSS-2 scheduled to

launch 2Q17

A new model for satellite development

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

INSPIRESat-1 Breakdown of Responsibilities

CIP

Launch

Structure

Thermal

ADCS

CDH & FSW

Comm

EPS

S/C I&T

CPT

Tvac

Vib

S/C-LV I&T

LASP/CU

IIST

NCU

SQU

LATMOS

Kyutech

NTU

Spacecraft Operations

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

INSPIRESat-1 Organizational Structure

Amal Chandran

LASP PI

Loren Chang

NCU PI

Priyadarshan

IIST PI

Kaustubh

Student PM/SEYa Chih Mao

Student PM/SE

Will Evonosky

Student PM/SE

ADCS

Spencer Boyajian

Structures & Thermal

Rong Tsai Lin

EPS

Yi Duann

Comm

Ankit Verma

CDH

Niwhashini

FSW

Chi Kuang Chao

CIP - PI

Tzu-Wei Fang, Science Lead

Tomoko Matsuo

Will EvonoskyShih-Chi Chiu

Charles Lin

Tiger Liu

Tarun Pant

Science Team

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

INSPIRE Year 1

(Fall 2016- Fall 2017)

INSPIRE Year 2

(Fall 2017- Fall 2018)

INSPIRE Year 3

(Fall 2018- Fall 2019)

2016 2017 2018 2019

MOOC Development

PHD/Masters Student training under INSPIRE Project

Integrate with CU Courses

2nd INSPIRE

Workshop at

CU Boulder

August 1-3,

2017

4th INSPIRE

Workshop at

[TBD]

July/August

2019

3rd INSPIRE

Workshop at

[TBD]

July/August

2018

1st INSPIRE

Workshop at

NCU Taiwan

July 20-22,

2016

Operations

and Science

Analysis &

publications

INSPIRESat- 1

PDR CDR Delivery Launch

Summer

6 credit

Program

Summer

6 credit

Program

Summer

Program

INSPIRESat-1

Schedule

Science Objective 1: Plasma bubbles

Retterer,

2010

● Plasma bubbles form around the magnetic

equator in the early evening where there is a

density gradient and the magnetic field lines don’t

extend to upper parts of the ionosphere (Kil,

2015).

● Bubbles propagate along magnetic field lines

allowing the bubble to expand to latitudes far

from their initiation site (Sultan, 1996).

● Bubbles can be hundreds of kilometers across (in

longitude) and extend hundreds of kilometers up

in altitude above the F-layer (>150 km)(Kil, 2015)

● Bubbles can cause communications disruptions

via scintillation (large drops in signal intensity and

a shift in phase)

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

Science Objectives 2 and 3: the MTM

Temperature

Fang et al, 2016

● Around midnight at F region heights,there is a

neutral temperature increase and a characteristic

wind pattern which varies in season and solar

activity (see figure to the left of neutral temp as

proxy for the ion temp) (Fang et al, 2016)

● Only a few models accurately capture the MTM

including the coupled Whole Atmosphere Model

(WAM) with the Global Ionosphere Plasmasphere

(GIP) model.

● The MTM shows some seasonal variability in

which it tends to maximize in the summer and

weaken in the winter (Niranjan et al, 2006)

● The MTM is an understudied essential physics

process that represents ion-neutral coupling

Akmaev et al, 2009

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

● Passes over each grid cell

at 0 Local Time over the

entire 7 month mission.

● Assumes data will only be

collected in the nighttime

INSPIRESat-1 Science Data

INSPIRESat-1 is targeting a 400-600 km and 50° inclination non sun-synchronous

orbit

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

CIP Design: Overview

● An In-situ Instrument for

ionospheric plasma

properties

measurements.

● Verified functions with

the heritage of sounding

rocket in Taiwan.

● Previous version of CIP

named AIP onboard

Formosat-5 will be

launched on August 24,

2017.

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

CIP Design: Overview

● High precision of electrical mesh

grids.

● low quasi-hysteresis effect between I-

V curves measurement.

Retarding Potential Analyzer

Mode

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

CIP Design

Bottom ViewFront View

Top View

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

Ram Speed

Ion

Composition

Geophysical Data Derived from CIP

PLP RPA IT IDM Orbital and Attitude Data IGRF

Floating

Potential

Electron

Temperature

Ion

Temperature

Ion

Concentratio

n

Arrival

Angles

Ion Velocity in Euler

Angles Coordinate

Ion Velocity in

Geomagnetic Field

Coordinate

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

INSPIRESat-1 Concept of Operations

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

Gnd St Average Access Time

>= 5mins (mins)

UHF Data

(Megabytes/day)

S-Band Data

(Megabytes/day)

Boulder 39.433 - 591.495

IIST 14.567 2.048 -

NCU 11.35 1.596 -

Total (for 6 GS) 100.83 8.634 591.495

CIP data

Volume12.5 MB/day

(50% duty cycle, normal

mode)

100 MB/day (fast mode,

50% DC)

UHF Data rate 19.2 kilobits/sec

S-Band rate 0.25 Megabytes/sec

Data Downlink in the Day

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

1

3

4

Legend:

1 S-band 4.2 m S-band antenna with 24’dia. Radome

2 Radome and Type 2 pedestal base mount structure

3 CubeSat Student Operations Center

4 UHF Antenna

5 UHF RF equipment rack inside building

2

5

LASP CubeSat Student Operations Center

INSPIRESat-1 Assembly

Solar Panel

UHF Antenna Depl Mod

BCT XACT

Battery

Pack

EPS CardC&DH Card

UHF Comm

Module

S-Band

Transmitter

UHF

Antenna

CIP

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

Some Assembly Required

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

Subsystems

Subsystem Strategy Delegated to

Payload (CIP) Develop NCU

C&DH Develop IIST

FSW Develop IIST, LASP

EPS Develop NCU

Structure Develop LASP

Communication COTS SpaceQuest TRX-U

and TX-2400 S

ADCS COTS BlueCanyon XACT

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

20

Prototyping

20

C&DH Board prototype vacuum testing

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

Battery Board Assembly

INSPIRE Summer 2017

2017 Smallsat conference Logan, utah, august 6

Thank You !Questions