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Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE) was the sixth
(Morehead State University), and CP5 (California Polytechnic University). The remaining seven were Aeneas (operated by the University of Southern California), two SMDC-ONE (US Army), STARE-A (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and three AeroCube-4 (Aerospace Corporation).
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
sponsored CubeSat
A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
mission. It was built by students at the University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
with advising from professionals at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is a research institute with over one hundred research scientists ranging in fields from solar influences, to Earth' ...
. The CSSWE mission was a joint effort by the University of Colorado's Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is a research institute with over one hundred research scientists ranging in fields from solar influences, to Earth' ...
. The mission principal investigator was Prof. Xinlin Li, and the Co-PIs are Prof. Scott Palo and Dr. Shri Kanekal. The project manager for the project was Dr. Lauren Blum, the system engineer was Dr. David Gerhardt, and the instrument scientist was Dr. Quintin Schiller.
CSSWE launched on September 13, 2012, on an Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...
rocket by the United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, ...
on ELaNa-VI as part of the NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). The CSSWE team released its science products to the public for download on NASA's Coordinated Data Analysis Web Site (CDAWeb).
As of December 22, 2014, CSSWE showed severe battery degradation, likely due to pushing the battery thousands of cycles beyond the battery's design specs. As a result, CSSWE cannot retain enough power to receive or transmit data.
Mission Objective
CSSWE's mission objective is to study space weather from a near-Earth orbit (480 km x 780 km).Li, X., S. Palo, R. Kohnert, L. Blum, D. Gerhardt, Q. Schiller, and S. Califf (2013), Small mission accomplished by students - big impact on space weather research, ''Space Weather'', Accepted, DOI: 10.1002/swe.20025 Specifically, CSSWE works in conjunction with concurrent missions (such as theVan Allen Probes
The Van Allen Probes, formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), were two robotic spacecraft that were used to study the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. NASA conducted the Van Allen Probes mission as part of the Li ...
, BARREL, and SAMPEX) to address the following questions: 1) How does solar flare location, magnitude, and frequency elate to the timing, duration, and energy spectrum of solar energetic particles
Solar energetic particles (SEP), formerly known as solar cosmic rays, are high-energy, charged particles originating in the solar atmosphere and solar wind. They consist of protons, electrons and heavy ions with energies ranging from a few ten ...
(SEPs) reaching Earth and 2) How the spectrum and dynamics of Earth's radiation belt electrons evolve.
Science Instrument
CSSWE's science instrument, the Relativistic Electron and Proton Telescope integrated little experiment (REPTile), is the only science instrument aboard and meets the mission objectives. It is a scaled-down version of the Relativistic Electron and Proton Telescope (REPT) instrument, which is part of the Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma (ECT) Instrument Suite on board the Van Allen Probes. REPTile fulfills the mission objectives by measuring electrons from 0.58 to >3.8Megaelectronvolt
In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV, also written electron-volt and electron volt) is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating from rest through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum ...
s (MeV) and protons from 8 to 40 MeV. Also on the CubeSat is an onboard magnetometer to provide knowledge of spacecraft and instrument orientation with respect to Earth's magnetic field.
Pre-Flight Testing
CSSWE underwent the same rigorous testing that all space-based assets at LASP do. In addition to component and subsystem level testing, the spacecraft underwent numerous system level tests. It passed thethermal vacuum chamber
A thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC) is a vacuum chamber in which the radiative thermal environment is controlled.
Typically the thermal environment is achieved by passing liquids or fluids through thermal shrouds for cold temperatures or through the ...
test, in which 11 orbital cycles of the spacecraft were simulated in vacuum by increasing and decreasing the spacecraft temperature to reproduce thermal models which predict actual on-orbit temperatures. The first few hours of the mission were reproduced by simulating launch (in which the deployment switch is released, initiating automated commissioning phase) from a mesa nearby the LASP ground station. CSSWE passed this test by completing the initial commissioning phase, deploying its antenna, and establishing contact with the LASP ground station. Orbital attitude tests were performed as well, including Helmholtz cage and error ellipse tests.
Launch
CSSWE was originally scheduled to launch on August 2, 2012 aboard theNational Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. fe ...
Launch-36 ( NROL-36). However, the launch was delayed three times to provide additional time for resolution of a range instrumentation issue, according to the United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, ...
official statement.CXBN
Cosmic X-ray Background Nanosatellite (CXBN) was a satellite and mission developed by the Morehead State University. Unlike its successor, it was a partial failure as its transmissions were too weak for its mission due to it going into an anoma ...
On Orbit Success
The spacecraft uses a measuring tape as an antenna to communicate with ground stations. CSSWE was first heard beaconing telemetry packets by amateur radio operatorcall sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...
DK3WN almost exactly two hours after deployment from the PPOD, overcoming its first major hurdle. The spacecraft completed science commissioning and was commanded into full science mode 22 days later on October 5. Full mission success occurred on January 5, 2013 after three months of science data. The CSSWE mission ended in December 2014 due to battery degradation.
The first science results and updated science results were presented, respectively, at the 2012 and 2013 Fall American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...
in San Francisco, CA. and published in peer-reviewed Journals such as Geophysical Review Letters, the Journal of Geophysical Research, and Science. CSSWE now has 24 associated peer-reviewed scientific or engineering journal publications, including a paper published in Nature on 13 December 2017. Xinlin Li, Richard Selesnick, Quintin Schiller, Kun Zhang, Hong Zhao, Daniel N. Baker, and Michael A. Temerin (2017), Measurement of electrons from albedo neutron
decay and neutron density in near-Earth space, doi:10.1038/nature24642.
References
{{Use American English, date=January 2014 CubeSats Student satellites Spacecraft launched in 2012