Cubesat Constellations for Heliophysics Project

The workshop will identify the scientific investigations enabled by a flotilla of small instruments in Earth-trailing and Earth-leading orbits. It will outline a mission concept and the technology challenges of the instruments and spacecraft systems necessary to conduct these investigations. This new approach, a flotilla of simple instruments, could help NASA develop a new approach to heliophysics research. What causes the Sun to vary? The Sun gives off magnetic fields, bulk plasma (the solar wind) and energetic particles moving up to nearly the speed of light, and all of these vary spatially and temporally. The three dimensional structure of solar wind turbulence, coronal mass ejections (CME) and magnetic clouds can only be understood with concurrent, multipoint measurements. Rapid advancements in CubeSat technology and the NASA OCT funding of Interplanetary CubeSats has opened the possibility of developing a flotilla of tiny spacecraft carrying magnetometers or simple plasma instruments to conduct these investigations. CubeSats are already demonstrating their cost effectiveness in Earth orbit. Heliophysics is a particularly fruitful field for extension of CubeSats to interplanetary constellations because many scientific investigations can only be accomplished with concurrent, spatially distributed measurements and the fields and particles instrumentation may fit within CubeSat volume constraints. While many CubeSat subsystems developed for Earth orbit are directly applicable to interplanetary mission, many subsystems will have to be totally redesigned to meet the requirements of deep space missions. This workshop will identify the scientific investigations enabled by a flotilla of small instruments in Earth-trailing and Earth-leading orbits. It will outline a mission concept and the technology challenges of the instruments and spacecraft systems necessary to conduct these investigations. This new approach, a flotilla of simple instruments, could help NASA develop a new approach to heliophysics research.

The concept of this workshop complements current heliophysics investigations. A flotilla of small instruments will augment the measurements of current and planned missions. The three dimensional structure of solar wind turbulence, coronal mass ejections (CME) and magnetic clouds can only be understood with concurrent, multipoint measurements. Rapid advancements in CubeSat technology and the NASA OCT funding of Interplanetary CubeSats has opened the possibility of developing a flotilla.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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