CubeSat for Solar Particles (CuSP) was a low-cost 6U

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 ...

to orbit the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

to study the dynamic

particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...

and

magnetic fields A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

. The principal investigator for CuSP is Mihir Desai, at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. It was launched on the maiden flight of the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any r ...

(SLS), as a secondary payload of the Artemis 1 mission on 16 November 2022. Following deployment from the Artemis launch adaptor, contact with the spacecraft showed that it successfully stabilized and deployed its solar arrays, but after the initial 57 minute 27 second radio contact, no further contact was established, however the search is still on. Blind commanding will be performed to stabilize the spacecraft should it still be functioning.Hill, Denise (December 8, 2022).
Artemis I Payload CuSP CubeSat Has Apparently Failed
" NASA Press release (alternate link
SpaceRef
. Retrieved 8 Dec. 2022.

Objective

Measuring

space weather Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the time varying conditions within the Solar System, including the solar wind, emphasizing the space surrounding the Earth, including conditions in the ...

that can create a wide variety of effects at

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, from interfering with radio communications to tripping up satellite electronics to creating electric currents in power grids, is of importance. To create a network of

stations would require many instruments scattered throughout space millions of miles apart, but the cost of such a system is prohibitive. Though the

s can only carry a few instruments, they are relatively inexpensive to launch because of their small mass and standardized design. Thus, CuSP also was intended as a test for creating a network of space science stations.

The CuSP Team

CuSP Spacecraft Team: Dr. Mihir Desai: Principal Investigator Mike Epperly: Project Manager Dr. Don George: Mission System Engineer Chad Loeffler: Flight Software Engineer Raymond Doty: Spacecraft Technician Dr. Frederic Allegrini: SIS Instrument Lead Dr. Neil Murphy: VHM Instrument Lead Dr. Shrikanth Kanekal, MERiT Instrument Lead

Payload

This CubeSat carried three scientific instruments: * The Suprathermal Ion Spectrograph (SIS), is built by the Southwest Research Institute to detect and characterize low-energy

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 ...

. * Miniaturized Electron and Proton Telescope (MERiT), will return counts of high-energy solar energetic particles. * Vector Helium Magnetometer (VHM), being built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields. ;Propulsion The satellite features a

cold gas thruster A cold gas thruster (or a cold gas propulsion system) is a type of rocket engine which uses the expansion of a (typically inert) pressurized gas to generate thrust. As opposed to traditional rocket engines, a cold gas thruster does not house any ...

system for propulsion,

attitude control Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc. Controlling vehicle ...

(orientation) and orbital maneuvering.

Flight results

After a successful launch of the SLS at 12:47 am ET, The Orion/ICPS performed a Trans-Lunar Injection and separated. Shortly thereafter, CuSP was deployed from its launch canister. Twenty-three minutes after deployment, DSN received Open Loop Receiver (OLR) telemetry from CuSP indicating it had booted up, detumbled, deployed solar arrays, and assumed a SAFE, Sun-pointing, orientation. Multiple attempts to receive signals from the spacecraft failed, and no further contact has been made. The CuSP team has fully investigated a sudden battery temperature increase and found it was a telemetry failure. This was verified by comparing redundant indications of several parameters. The redundant indications did not show the suspected excursion. The CuSP team has fully investigated an anomalous high radio temperature and found it to only be a GSE scaling problem. OLR monitoring of the radio signal indicated that the transmitter stopped suddenly after transmitting for 1 hour and 15 minutes. No cause has been determined for this end of transmission. Additional contact attempts are planned during the first quarter of 2023.

Gallery

File:CuSP in TVAC.jpg, CuSP is instrumented and placed in the Thermal Vacuum Chamber. File:Dr Mihir Desai.jpg, alt=Dr. Desai and the CuSP., Dr. Mihir Desai, Principal Investigator, seen with the CuSP File:Dr Don George.jpg, alt=Dr. Don and the CuSP., Dr. Don George testing the Electrical Power System (EPS) on the CuSP. File:Dr Gumby.jpg, alt=The CuSP Timeline, Dr. Gumby presenting the post deployment sequence of operations of CuSP to a NASA review panel. File:CuSP Mass.jpg, CuSP weighs-in at a 'wet mass' of 10.2 kg, well within the 14 kg mass limit. File:CuSP Fits.jpg, The 'Purple Hands' verify that CuSP fits into its dispenser. This dispenser pushes CuSP out of the launch vehicle. File:Raymond and CuSP.jpg, alt=Raymond and the CuSP, The Principal Technician for CuSP, Raymond Doty, makes final 'Pack and Ship' preparations for CuSP.

References