SA023-11
The Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX): A New NSF Supported CubeSat Project
Monday, 14 December 2020: 12:00
Virtual
Scott E Palo1, Marcin Pilinski2, Jeffrey P Thayer1, Whitney Quinne Lohmeyer3, Kristina M Lemmer4, Simone D'Amico5, E. Glenn Lightsey6 and Saeed Latif7, (1)University of Colorado at Boulder, Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)University of Colorado, Boulder, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Olin College, Needham, NC, United States, (4)Western Michigan University, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Kalamazoo, MI, United States, (5)Stanford University, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford, CA, United States, (6)Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States, (7)University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, United States
Abstract:
The Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX) offers a bold vision towards addressing outstanding aeronomy questions achieved through a global constellation of CubeSat swarms making in-situ ionospheric and thermospheric measurements between 300 and 600 km altitude. The vision is to use swarms of 6-12 CubeSats operating cooperatively in a common orbital plane. The CubeSats in each swarm will range in separation from 1 to 1000 km and this separation will be controlled by a combination of differential drag and onboard propulsion. It is envisioned that dozens of swarms operating in different orbital planes and altitudes are feasible in the coming years to address compelling aeronomy and space weather questions. The SWARM-EX spacecraft will use a custom bus leveraging high TRL components while providing accommodation for a suite of 1U or smaller science instruments.
The first step toward meeting this vision is a newly funded NSF pathfinder mission using 3 CubeSats that will demonstrate the SWARM-EX key technologies and address scientific questions related to the evolution of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) and equatorial thermospheric anomaly (ETA). The SWARM-EX 3U CubeSats will include a low-rate UHF radio that will demonstrate satellite crosslinks required to maintain the constellation separation when flying at < 10 km separations, a high rate X-band data downlink and a scalable propulsion system. These components fit into a 2.25U form factor providing 0.75U for the science instruments. To address the EIA/ETA science questions SWARM-EX will include the FIPEX neutral oxygen sensor and a Langmuir Probe measuring electron density. The SWARM-EX pathfinder mission will address the science question from the National Research Council’s Heliophysics Decadal Report:“How plasmas and neutrals interact across local, regional, and global scales.”
The SWARM-EX project will address open aeronomy science questions, develop and demonstrate new satellite technologies and build a community of students and faculty skilled in the art of space systems. An overview of the SWARM-EX vision and NSF project will be presented.
