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

一颗以微型质谱仪（简称INMS）为核心仪器，包括所有遥测、通信和姿态控制系统的小型卫星已经设计完成，仪器部件已经制造完成，剩下的就是这些部件的集成，以便在2017年春季之前交付。该CUBESAT卫星使命的目的是提供全球范围内500公里附近大气物种的现场密度。这颗卫星名为“EXOCUBE 2”，直接执行具有类似科学范围的“EXOCUBE”使命。EXOCUBE由于天线部署系统故障而遇到通信问题，一个姿态控制系统重力吊杆也发生故障。然而，关键的科学设备-中性和离子质谱仪-的性能确实达到了预期，检索到的少量数据表明，首次在EXOCUBE上飞行的该仪器的效能。为EXOCUBE 2提出RAPID建议的理由是，该卫星使命将于2017年秋季在NASA教育发射纳米卫星（ELaNa）发射队列中飞行。 要实现这一目标，需要在2017年春季交付ExoCube-2卫星。拟议的工作将快速组装和集成质谱仪和卫星总线，以满足这一要求苛刻的一年时间表。由于EXOCUBE卫星上一次飞行由于遥测发射天线部署失败而不幸失败，因此利用了该卫星上一次飞行遗留下来的经验和材料，使研制时间非常短，费用也非常低。

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.