SA023-15
Design of the IMAP Thermospheric CubeSat at the University of New Hampshire

Monday, 14 December 2020: 12:12
Virtual
Jenna Burgett1, Kelly Bisson2, Alex Chesley2, Jeffrey Campbell2, Jeffrey Grant2, Marc Lessard3, Noé Lugaz1, Jason Legere4, Sonya S Smith3, Laura M Peticolas5, Marcus Alfred6 and Lindsay Marie Bartolone7, (1)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Durham, NH, United States, (2)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Durham, United States, (3)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (4)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Space Science Center, Durham, NH, United States, (5)Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, United States, (6)Howard University, Washington, United States, (7)Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, IL, United States
Abstract:
The IMAP Thermospheric CubeSat (ITC) constellation is a multi-institutional project that involves graduate and undergraduate students at the University of New Hampshire, Howard University, and Sonoma State University. The constellation will contain three identical CubeSats, with each university building one of the three. ITC is being funded by NASA as a part of the IMAP Student Collaboration (IMAP StC), as the program augments the mission’s diversity goals and will provide complementary measurements. The science objective of ITC is to investigate the Earth’s upper neutral atmosphere around the cusp region and how it responds to solar wind, magnetospheric processes, and particle precipitation. This objective will be achieved through characterizing and observing the neutral density in the cusp region using two instruments initially designed at UNH. The UV Photometric Tube (UV PMT) will characterize neutral atomic oxygen, and the Electron Retarding Potential Analyzer (ERPA) will measure electron temperature. Each CubeSat in the ITC constellation is currently planned to have both instruments and to be launched in 2024-2025 into a high-inclination low-Earth orbit.
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