Development and testing of a multi-Needle Langmuir Probe for the detection of extremely small spatial structures in low earth orbit

Plasma density is a key parameter that is central to the understanding of ionosphere dynamics. Recently, there has been interest in characterizing the stationary non-linear waves (or solitons), both precursor and pinned, generated by orbital debris as a tool for space situational awareness for sub-cm objects. While larger than 10 cm orbital debris can be detected and tracked by optical measurements, and larger than 1 cm can also be tracked by radar measurements, the detection and tracking of sub-cm orbital debris is extremely challenging. Recent work has shown charged orbital debris can create solitons, but these have not been directly observed either in space or in a plasma chamber setting. This is partly attributed to the small-scale size of such features and the availability of the physically small enough sensors that can detect these features in-situ. A purposely developed Langmuir probe that is not only physically smaller than such density features but also electrically sensitive to them could be a new tool for small sized orbital debris detection, characterization, and tracking. At orbital speeds, such a Langmuir probe would need a sampling cadence of multi 10s of KHz. Two science questions related to orbital debris that could be addressed by the proposed effort: 1. What are the experimentally measured coherent density structures associated with solitons generated by orbital debris? 2. How are the measurements distributed across myriad shapes and sizes of orbital debris and can the debris be characterized based on such measurements? Furthermore, naturally occurring ionospheric irregularities ranging from small-scale to large-scale can affect the propagation of radio-waves and affect communication links over the globe. The prediction of these irregularities by physical and assimilative models heavily relies on a large amount of data collected over different conditions. While ground-based measurements can resolve irregularities over mesoscales using TEC data from a dense GPS network and even scintillation/Fresnel scales using high-rate GPS measurements, the lack of global coverage and the limited data availability are major deterrents. A low size weight and power Langmuir probe capable of sampling at multiple 10s of KHz in a LEO platform orbiting at ~7.5km/s will be able to resolve irregularity scale down to 10s of centimeters and significantly aid the scientific understanding of the combination of instabilities that can lead to irregularities capable of scintillating GNSS signals. Two science questions enabled by the successful completion of the proposed instrument development and deployment on a CubeSat constellation are: 1. What is the occurrence probability of small-scale irregularities of meters and below compared to the occurrence probability of the larger-scale ESF irregularities in the equatorial nighttime ionosphere? 2. What is the contribution of small kinetic scale irregularities (<10m) versus larger scale irregularities (100-400m) to the observed scintillation of GNSS signals. This proposal is applicable to two sub-elements of the B.8 HTIDeS Solicitation: the nominal ITD program as well as the ITD-Space Working Environment program. The proposed effort develops an enhanced Langmuir probe (>= 80 KHz sample rate) that builds on flight heritage and can enable CubeSat constellations that can perform high spatial resolution and high-fidelity plasma-density measurements. These density measurements will not only address space weather phenomenon questions but also assist in space situational awareness efforts by detecting and characterizing micro-meteoroid orbital debris signatures. The proposed effort develops the instrument, shows its capability in a plasma chamber environment that mimics LEO plasma conditions, does controlled experiments that should generate plasma solitons, and thus help develop a sensor setup on a potential satellite mission that detects the solitons in-situ.

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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