Collaborative Research: CubeSat: Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics (FIREBIRD)

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这个项目是由波士顿大学和蒙大拿州立大学的空间科学家和工程师合作完成的。这个为期三年的跨学科团队努力的目标是建造和操作一套小型的，所谓的立方体卫星航天器。每颗卫星将携带一个单一的大几何因子固态探测器，对从辐射带中析出的电子敏感。“火鸟”任务（集中研究相对论电子爆发强度、范围和动力学）是一项有针对性的、目标导向的空间气象立方体卫星任务，旨在解决范艾伦辐射带中电子微爆发的空间尺度、大小和能量依赖性。相对论性电子微暴表现为短时间的强烈电子沉淀，由低空航天器上的粒子探测器测量到，当它们的轨道穿过穿过外层辐射带的磁力线时就会被观测到。虽然微爆发被认为是相对论性电子的重要损失机制，但对它们的理解仍然很少，因此绘制了地球的空间天气模型？S辐射带不完整。火鸟?该卫星独特的低空两点聚焦观测将充分利用立方体卫星平台的能力，回答具有空间天气影响的三个基本科学问题：单个微暴的空间尺度是多少？单个微暴的能量依赖性是什么？以及微爆发在全球范围内产生的辐射带的总电子损失是多少？除了解决基础空间物理研究和空间天气应用之外，“火鸟”的调查还有助于在项目的各个阶段培训和教育不同的大学生群体。学生将主要负责仪器和航天器的设计和实施，同时接受各专业领域专业人士的指导。其影响是，这项调查的成果将持续数年，如果不是几十年的话，就像20多名学生谁？切断他们的牙齿？在这个科学任务中成为实践的科学家和工程师。立方体卫星任务中涉及的新技术在很大程度上未经证实，这使得该项目本身就存在重大风险。然而，另一方面，该项目不仅在其本身的研究领域，而且在空间科学和大气研究以及航空航天工程和教育等更大领域具有巨大的变革潜力。此外，该项目将是首批执行多航天器立方体卫星任务的两个项目之一，从而推动了这一新兴技术的极限。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project is a collaboration between space scientists and engineers at Boston University and Montana State University. The objective of this three-year cross-disciplinary team effort is to build and operate a set of tiny, so-called CubeSat, spacecraft. Each satellite will carry a single large-geometry-factor, solid-state detector, sensitive to electrons precipitating from the radiation belts. The FIREBIRD mission (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics) is a targeted, goal-directed, space weather CubeSat mission to resolve the spatial scale size and energy dependence of electron microbursts in the Van Allen radiation belts. Relativistic electron microbursts appear as short durations of intense electron precipitation measured by particle detectors on low altitude spacecraft, seen when their orbits cross magnetic field lines which thread the outer radiation belt. While microbursts are thought to be a significant loss mechanism for relativistic electrons, they remain poorly understood, thus rendering space weather models of Earth?s radiation belts incomplete. FIREBIRD?s unique two-point, focused observations at low altitudes, that fully exploit the capabilities of the CubeSat platform, will answer three fundamental scientific questions with space weather implications: What is the spatial scale size of an individual microburst?; What is the energy dependence of an individual microburst?; and How much total electron loss from the radiation belts do microbursts produce globally? In addition to addressing fundamental space physics research and space weather applications, the FIREBIRD investigation also contributes to the training and education of a diverse population of university students in all phases of the project. Students will have major responsibility for the design and implementation of the instruments and the spacecraft while at the same time being mentored by professionals in each expert area. The impact is that the fruits of this investigation will continue strongly for years, if not decades, as the twenty or more students who ?cut their teeth? on this science mission become practicing scientists and engineers. The new, largely unproven technology involved in cubesat missions, inherently makes the project associated with significant risks. On the other hand, however, the project has tremendous potential to be transformational not only within its own research area but also for the larger field of space science and atmospheric research as well as within aerospace engineering and education. In addition, the project will be one of the first two to carry out a multi-spacecraft CubeSat mission, thus pushing the limit of this emerging technology.