The miniaturized High-Energy-Resolution relativistic electron Telescope (HERT)

Understanding the radiation environment at Earth is critical due to both scientific interests and practical needs. However, the acceleration mechanism of Earth's energetic particles consisting of radiation belts is neither fully understood nor quantified because of 1) sparse in-situ observations between the altitude of ~5.8 Earth Radii and geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and 2) difficulties to disentangle the effect of different acceleration mechanisms. This proposal aims to develop a miniaturized, High-Energy-Resolution relativistic electron Telescope (HERT) that can be easily accommodated into future CubeSat/SmallSat missions to understand and quantify the effect of acceleration mechanism throughout the entire radiation belts to GEO using a novel method of probing electron flux oscillations. The specific science objectives are: 1) understanding the energy-dependent acceleration of relativistic and ultrarelativistic electrons in the entire outer radiation belt, and 2) quantifying the contribution of radial diffusion to the energy-dependent acceleration of outer belt electron core populations. HERT is a compact (<3U) telescope with the ability to provide high energy resolution (dE/E<10%) measurements of 1 ' 7 MeV electrons. Built on the heritage of the REPT instrument on the Van Allen Probes and the REPTile instrument on the CubeSat CSSWE, HERT is designed with much higher energy resolution in comparison to previous telescope type instruments. With radiation-tolerant electronics and boards for geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and a miniaturized design, HERT will enable high energy resolution measurements of outer belt electrons, while compliant with orbital debris requirements, and can be easily accommodated on future CubeSat/SmallSat missions. The proposed instrumentation development will enable a more comprehensive study of the roles of the acceleration mechanisms in the outer radiation belt and help gain deeper insights into the energy-dependent acceleration of relativistic and ultrarelativistic electrons. With a compact design, the proposed instrument can also be easily accommodated on other missions, at Earth or other planets, to provide high energy resolution energetic particle measurements.

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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