Collaborative Research: RAPID: Exocube 2 - A Cubesat to Measure In-situ the Global Distribution of Light Species Densities in the Exosphere

一颗带有微型质谱仪（简称INMS）的小型卫星作为核心仪器，包括所有遥测、通信和姿态控制系统，已经设计完成，仪器部件已经制造完成，剩下的就是这些部件的集成，需要在2017年春季交付。CUBESAT卫星任务的目的是在全球范围内提供500公里附近大气物种的原位密度。这颗名为“EXOCUBE 2”的卫星直接跟随具有类似科学范围的“EXOCUBE”任务。由于天线部署系统故障，EXOCUBE出现了通信问题，一个姿态控制系统重力吊杆也出现了故障。然而，关键的科学包，即中性和离子质谱仪，确实如预期的那样运行，检索到的少量数据表明该仪器的有效性，该仪器首次在EXOCUBE上飞行。EXOCUBE 2的RAPID提案的理由是，该卫星任务将在2017年秋季的NASA纳米卫星教育发射（ELaNa）发射队列中飞行。要实现这一目标，exocbe -2卫星必须在2017年春季交付。拟议的工作将快速组装和集成质谱仪和卫星总线，以满足这一苛刻的一年时间表。EXOCUBE卫星上一次飞行的遗留经验和材料使极短的开发时间和最低的成本成为可能，不幸的是，由于遥测发射天线部署失败，EXOCUBE卫星的飞行失败了。

A small satellite with a miniature mass spectrometer (referred to as INMS) as the centerpiece instrument and including all telemetry, communication and attitude control systems has been designed, the instrumental parts fabricated, and what remains is the integration of these parts required to achieve delivery by the spring of 2017. The purpose of this CUBESAT satellite mission is to provide in-situ densities of atmospheric species near 500 km, on a global scale. This satellite, named "EXOCUBE 2", follows directly on the "EXOCUBE" mission that had a similar scientific scope. EXOCUBE suffered communication problems due to an antenna deployment system failure, and one attitude control system gravity boom also failed. Nevertheless, the key science package, the neutral and ion mass spectrometer, did perform as expected and a small amount of data retrieved indicated the efficacy of that instrument, which flew for the first time, on EXOCUBE. The rationale justifying a RAPID proposal for EXOCUBE 2 is that this satellite mission is manifested to fly on the NASA Educational Launch of Nanosat (ELaNa) launch queue in the fall of 2017. Achieving this date would require the ExoCube-2 satellite delivery to take place within the spring of 2017. The proposed work would rapid assemble and integrate the mass spectrometer and satellite bus to meet this demanding one-year schedule. The very short development time and minimal cost is made possible by the legacy experience and materials left over from the previous flight of the EXOCUBE satellite that unfortunately failed owing to the failure of the deployment of the telemetry transmitting antenna.