1. Science of Opportunity: Heliophysics on the FASTSAT Mission and STP-S26
- Author
-
Rowland, Douglas E, Collier, Michael R, Sigwarth, John B, Jones, Sarah L, Hill, Joanne K, Benson, Robert, Choi, Michael, Chornay, Dennis, Cooper, John, Feng, Steven, Gill, Nathaniel, Goodloe, Colby, Han, Lawrence, Hancock, Holly, Hunsaker, Floyd, Jones, Noble, Keller, John W, Klenzing, Jeffrey, Kleyner, Igor, Moore, Tom, Ogilvie, Keith, Boudreaux, Mark, Casas, Joseph, Myre, David, and Smith, Billy
- Subjects
Spacecraft Instrumentation And Astrionics - Abstract
The FASTSAT spacecraft, which was launched on November 19, 2010 on the DoD STP-S26 mission, carries three instruments developed in joint collaboration by NASA GSFC and the US Naval Academy: PISA, TTl, and MINI_ME.I,1 As part of a rapid-development, low-cost instrument design and fabrication program, these instruments were a perfect match for FASTSAT, which was designed and built in less than one year. These instruments, while independently developed, provide a collaborative view of important processes in the upper atmosphere relating to solar and energetic particle input, atmospheric response, and ion outflow. PISA measures in-situ irregularities in electron number density, TIl provides limb measurements of the atomic oxygen temperature profile with altitude, and MINI-ME provides a unique look at ion populations by a remote sen sing technique involving neutral atom imaging. Together with other instruments and payloads on STP-S26 such as the NSF RAX mission, FalconSat-5, and NanoSail-D (launched as a tertiary payload from FASTSAT), these instruments provide a valuable "constellation of opportunity" for following the now of energy and charged and neutral particles through the upper atmosphere. Together, and for a small fraction of the price of a major mission, these spacecraft will measure the energetic electrons impacting the upper atmosphere, the ions leaving it, and the large-scale plasma and neutral response to these energy inputs. The result will be a new model for maximizing scientific return from multiple small, distributed payloads as secondary payloads on a larger launch vehicle.
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF