Collaborative Research: CubeSat Ideas Lab: Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX) CubeSats

立方体卫星是小型化、低重量、低成本的卫星。由于这些特性，由10 -100颗立方体卫星组成的星座带有专门研究空间环境的仪器，为了解和预测空间天气提供了一个令人兴奋的新机会。空间气象大气可重构多尺度实验（SWARM-EX）项目为推进空间气象立方体卫星星座的设计和建设提供了重要的一步。SWARM-EX将由三颗相同的立方体卫星组成，具有卫星间无线电通信、机载推进、先进数据下行链路和星座内自主操作的新技术。每颗卫星都将测量地球上层大气中的电离气体和中性气体，研究赤道附近的结构。SWARM-EX使命独特地促进了STEM教育的机会，并为公众推广提供了一个平台。SWARM-EX将建立第一个校际立方体卫星指导计划——与已经建立立方体卫星计划的机构合作，在全国范围内创建长期的、基于项目的学习环境。教学、培训和学习也将通过包括来自六个地理分布的大学项目参与SWARM-EX的多个研究生和本科生来推进。这个项目源于“创意实验室：立方体卫星创新的跨领域倡议”，这是一个由地球科学、工程和计算机与信息科学与工程理事会支持的跨学科项目。SWARM-EX是朝着解决悬而未决的航空问题迈出的大胆一步，通过全球立方体卫星群星座在300至600公里高度之间进行电离层和热层的原位测量。每一群立方体卫星的分离距离将从1公里到1000公里不等，这种分离将由差分阻力和机载推进的组合控制。该项目支持的探路者任务将使用3颗相同的立方体卫星来演示SWARM-EX关键技术，并解决与赤道电离异常（EIA）和赤道热层异常（ETA）演变相关的科学问题。具体的航空学问题是：1)等离子体密度和中性氧在EIA和ETA特征中的持久性和相关性如何？2)在小于90分钟的时间尺度上，我们观察到非迁移潮汐和地磁活动导致的EIA/ETA性质的变化？这些立方体卫星将展示包括射频交叉链路、推进、CDMA x波段数据下行链路和机载自主性在内的新技术。此外，每个立方体卫星将包括一个原子氧传感器和朗缪尔探测器，从而进行所需的测量，以回答提出的科学问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

CubeSats are miniaturized, low-weight, low-cost satellites. Due to these properties, constellations of 10s-100s of CubeSats with specialized instruments for studying the space environment provide a new exciting opportunity to understand and predict space weather. The Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX) project provides an important step in the advancement of designing and building CubeSat constellations for space weather. SWARM-EX will consist of three identical CubeSats with novel technologies for radio communications between satellites, onboard propulsion, advanced data downlinks, and autonomous operations within the constellation. Each satellite will measure ionized and neutral gases in the Earth's upper atmosphere, studying structures seen near the equator. The SWARM-EX mission uniquely fosters opportunities for STEM education and enables a platform for public outreach. SWARM-EX will establish the first Intercollegiate CubeSat Mentoring Program - partnering institutions that have established CubeSat programs with new programs to create long-term, project-based learning environments across the nation. Teaching, training, and learning will also be advanced through the inclusion of multiple graduate students, and undergraduate students from the six geographically distributed university programs involved in SWARM-EX. This project resulted from the Ideas Lab: Cross-cutting Initiative in CubeSat Innovations, an interdisciplinary program supported by Geosciences, Engineering, and Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorates.SWARM-EX is a bold step towards addressing outstanding aeronomy questions achieved through a global constellation of CubeSat swarms making in-situ ionospheric and thermospheric measurements between 300 and 600 km altitude. The CubeSats in each swarm will range in separation from 1 to 1000 km and this separation will be controlled by a combination of differential drag and onboard propulsion. A pathfinder mission, supported by this project will use 3 identical CubeSats to demonstrate the SWARM-EX key technologies and address scientific questions related to the evolution of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) and equatorial thermospheric anomaly (ETA). The specific aeronomy questions are 1) How persistent and correlated are the plasma density and neutral oxygen in EIA and ETA features?; 2) Over what timescales, less than 90 minutes, do we observe changes in EIA/ETA properties due to non-migrating tides and geomagnetic activity? These CubeSats will demonstrate novel technology including RF cross-links, propulsion, CDMA X-band data downlinks and on-board autonomy. Additionally, each CubeSat will include an atomic oxygen sensor and Langmuir Probe thus making the measurements required to answer the proposed science questions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.