RAPID: ANDESITE Cubesat

这笔拨款支持由9个航天器组成的ANDESITE CubeSat星座任务的完成和发射。这些立方体卫星将对电离层中的电流进行空间分辨测量，电离层是能量从磁层流入电离层的关键途径。这项研究工作将证明，利用立方体卫星星座可以进行关键的科学测量，用于空间天气监测。该基金将支持社区的一名初级科学家，并为研究生和本科生提供教育和培训。ANDESITE立方体卫星将以小间距（10km）飞越极光区，研究磁层-电离层耦合的小尺度空间结构。ANDESITE任务是通过火箭实验室的电子火箭发射到近极轨道上。一旦进入太空，6U总线将部署8颗微型卫星，通过网状网络在星座中通信。星座中的每个元素将进行三轴磁场测量，用于识别本地电流密度。该任务作为一个探路者，展示了在空间天气监测中使用小间距的小型航天器星座。这项研究将测试、发射和运行轨道上的航天器星座，并进行数据分析。

This grant supports the completion and launch of the ANDESITE CubeSat constellation mission consisting of 9 spacecraft. These CubeSat will make spatially-resolved measurements of electric currents in the ionosphere, which are a critical pathway of energy flow from the magnetosphere into the ionosphere. The research effort will demonstrate that critical scientific measurements can made using CubeSat constellations for use in space weather monitoring. The grant will support a junior scientist in the community and provide education and training for graduate and undergraduate students.The ANDESITE CubeSats will fly through the auroral zones with small inter-spacecraft separations (10km) to study the small-scale spatial structure of Magnetosphere- Ionosphere coupling. The ANDESITE mission is manifested on the Rocket Labs Electron rocket for a launch into a near polar orbit. Once in space, the 6U bus will deploy 8 pico-satellites to fly in a constellation communicating over a mesh network. Each element in the constellation will make a 3-axis magnetic field measurement which will be used to identify the local current density. The mission serves as a pathfinder to demonstrate the use of small spacecraft constellations with small separations for use in space weather monitoring. This research will test, launch, and operate the spacecraft constellation on orbit, and perform data analysis.