Shuttered Plasma Instrument for Detecting Environmental Response (SPIDER)

The objective of this grant is to develop instrumentation that can determine how magnetospheric and solar energy inputs cause the outflow of ionospheric plasma into the magnetosphere, specifically focusing on understanding the composition of the outflowing ions and how this composition changes under different driving conditions. This involves identifying the mechanisms that accelerate ions to escape velocities and resolving uncertainties about the relative proportions of heavy ions, such as N+, and O+, which impact magnetospheric dynamics. A major compelling question that persists surrounding ion outflow is the exact composition of the outflowing ion species. Notably, previous instruments meant to investigate the composition of cold ionospheric populations - especially those in low Earth orbit that directly sampled the ionosphere - did not have sufficient mass resolution to resolve O+ from N+. The proposed Shuttered Plasma Instrument for Detecting Environmental Response (SPIDER) can detect 10 eV - 5 keV ions capable of achieving the high mass resolution required to distinguish outflowing N+ from O+ -- a key measurement for the study of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling -- with a highly configurable sensor that requires much fewer spacecraft resources than traditional ESA with a ToF chamber. The sensor uses a novel electrically controlled timing gate (E-shutter), a cylindrical mirror electrostatic analyzer (ESA), and a channel electron mulitplier (CEM) to achieve these measurements. SPIDER has a SWaP low enough to fit within the payload envelope of a 3U CubeSat and also make measurements down at 10E-4 torr atmosphere.

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.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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