Development of Grotifer: a CubeSat for Three-dimensional Electric Field Measurements

Goal: We propose to design, build and test engineering prototypes of an electric field detector and central body attitude control system that fit in the design of a 27U CubeSat. The objective is to prove the viability of the full Grotifer concept through TRL5 within the H-TIDeS program. Grotifer is a CubeSat that will provide accurate (< 1mV/m) three-dimensional (3D) electric field (E-field) measurements in all environments of the heliosphere. Motivation: Developing Grotifer represents the best path forward to close an observational gap that currently hampers resolution of significant science questions at the forefront of space plasma physics research. This is because no existing instrument is capable of measuring all three components of the DC and low frequency E-field throughout the heliosphere with sufficient accuracy to determine the smallest and most consequential component: the E-field component parallel to the background magnetic field (B-field). Yet, the parallel E-field plays a key role in a multitude of plasma regimes – e.g., at reconnection sites, in the auroral acceleration region, in the solar wind and corona, in the magnetosphere, in shocks, on Mars, Jupiter, in standing waves, in Alfvén waves and turbulence and in time domain structures. This calls for a profound change in E-field instrument design. Approach: The design proposed leverages more than fifty years of expertise in terms of delivering highly accurate spin plane E-field measurements, while overcoming inaccuracies generated by spin axis E-field measurements. It consists of mounting detectors on two rotating plates, oriented at 90° with respect to each other, on a non-rotating central body. Each rotating plate has two component measurements of the E-field such that the Twin Orthogonal Rotating Platforms (TORPs) provide four instantaneous measurements of the E-field, and the three E-field components are well-measured by the rotating detectors. In that context, the investigation objectives are to increase the TRL of three systems from 3 to 5: 1) the Twin Orthogonal Rotating Platforms (TORPs) that house the E-field booms, 2) an attitude control system that maintains the central body fixed in inertial space while the E-field antenna system is rotating on TORPs, and 3) a CubeSat design that houses the TORPs, attitude control system, and bus electronics and that is in a form factor compatible with NASA's 2021 Heliophysics Flight Opportunities in Research and Technology (H-FORT) program. We will demonstrate the design and performance of a highly accurate E-field instrument (i.e., such that the ratio between the antenna length and the spacecraft dimension is greater than 20) and we will demonstrate the performance of an attitude control system that includes the rotating plates and that maintains the central body fixed in inertial space to within 10°. Significance: Our project is motivated by the urgent need for highly accurate 3D E-field measurements while enabling lower cost missions and constellation missions in deep space. Because E-fields are a fundamental quantity of the universe that play a key role in Heliophysics research, our project is highly relevant to all three objectives of the NASA Heliophysics Research Program and to NASA interests and programs in general.

Support NASA's Heliophysics strategic science objectives to understand the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system, including space weather. This will be achieved by developing/demonstrating instrumentation technology necessary to address the following science goals: Explore the physical processes in the space environment from the Sun to the Earth and throughout the solar system; Advance our understanding of the connections that link the Sun, the Earth, planetary space environments, and the outer reaches of our solar system; Develop the knowledge and capability to detect and predict extreme conditions in space to protect life and society and to safeguard human and robotic explorers beyond Earth.

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