The Experiment for Space Radiation Analysis: Probing the Earth's Radiation Belts Using a CubeSat Platform

Presenter Information

Carlos Maldonado, Los Alamos National LaboratoryFollow
Martin Kroupa, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jonathan Barney, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Michael Caffrey, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Susan Mendel, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kerry Boyd, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Zachary Miller, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Justin McGlown, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jonathan Deming, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kim Katko, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Markus Hehlen, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Brooke Mosley, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Justin Tripp, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Keith Morgan, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Peter White, Los Alamos National Laboratory
John Michel, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Anthony Nelson, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Robert Merl, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Michael Holloway, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Heidi Morning, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Daniel Arnold, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Ruth Skoug, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Phil Fernandes, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Ted Schultz, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Angus Guider, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Daniel Reisenfeld, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Brian Larsen, Los Alamos National Laboratory
John Steinberg, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Erik Krause, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Darrel Beckman, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Benigno Sandoval, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Paul Graham, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Zephram Tripp, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Bradley Hoose, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kevin Kaufeld, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Rory Scobie, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Joshua Ortner, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Elaine Cox, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Quinten Cole, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Thomas Fairbanks, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jeffrey George, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Robert Clanton, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Richard Dutch, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Andrew Kirby, Los Alamos National Laboratory
J. P. Martinez, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Tracy Gambill, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kasidit Subsomboon, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Darren Harvey, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Katherine Alano, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kristina McKeown, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Donathan Ortega, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Session

Weekday Session 2: Beyond LEO

Location

Utah State University, Logan, UT

Abstract

The Experiment for Space Radiation Analysis (ESRA) is the latest of a series of Demonstration and Validation missions built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, with the focus on testing a new generation of plasma and energetic particle sensors. The primary motivation for the ESRA payloads is to minimize size, weight, power, and cost while still providing necessary mission data. These new instruments will be demonstrated by ESRA through testing and on-orbit operations to increase their technology readiness level such that they can support the evolution of technology and mission objectives. This project will leverage a commercial off-the-shelf CubeSat avionics bus and commercial satellite ground networks to reduce the cost and timeline associated with traditional DemVal missions. The system will launch as a ride share with the DoD Space Test Program to be inserted in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) and allow observations of the Earth’s radiation belts. The ESRA CubeSat consists of two science payloads and several subsystems: the Wide-field-of-view Plasma Spectrometer, the Energetic Charged Particle telescope, high voltage power supply, payload processor, flight software architecture, and distributed processor module. The ESRA CubeSat will provide measurements of the plasma and energetic charged particle populations in the GTO environment for ions ranging from ~100 eV to ~1000 MeV and electrons with energy ranging from 100 keV to 20 MeV. ESRA will utilize a commercial 12U bus and demonstrate a low-cost, rapidly deployable spaceflight platform with sufficient SWAP to enable efficient measurements of the energetic particle populations in the dynamic radiation belts.