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CubeSat for Solar Particles (CuSP) was a low-cost 6U
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...
to orbit the
Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
to study the dynamic
particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle 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 (sometimes called B-field) is a physical 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 ...
. The principal investigator for CuSP is Mihir Desai, at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
,
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
. It was launched on the maiden flight of the
Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American Super heavy-lift launch vehicle, super heavy-lift Expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis program, Artemis Moon landing progra ...
(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 contact was lost after about an hour.


Objective

Measuring
space weather Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the varying conditions within the Solar System and its heliosphere. This includes the effects of the solar wind, especially on the Earth's magnetosphere, ion ...
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 Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
, 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
space weather Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the varying conditions within the Solar System and its heliosphere. This includes the effects of the solar wind, especially on the Earth's magnetosphere, ion ...
stations would require many instruments scattered throughout space millions of miles apart, but the cost of such a system is prohibitive. Though the
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...
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, PhD: Principal Investigator Mike Epperly: Project Manager Dr. Don George, PhD: Mission System Engineer Chad Loeffler: Flight Software Engineer Raymond Doty: Spacecraft Technician Dr. Frederic Allegrini, PhD: SIS Instrument Lead Dr. Neil Murphy, PhD: VHM Instrument Lead Dr. Shrikanth Kanekal, PhD, 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 tens ...
. * Miniaturized Electron and Proton Telescope (MERiT), is built by the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and 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 co ...
system for propulsion, attitude control (orientation) and orbital maneuvering.


Spacecraft bus

The spacecraft's bus consisted of: * SwRI Spacecraft Integrator: Design, Assembly, Integration and Test * SwRI SATYR Command and Data Handling Unit * SwRI Flight Software * Clyde-Space AAC Electrical Power System ** BCR MPPT converters ** LiPo Batteries and ** Deployable and Fixed Solar Arrays * VACCO MiPS Cold Gas Thruster * Blue Canyon Technologies XACT ADCS with Integrated Thruster Control * SwRI Spacecraft Structure Mechanical and Thermal (SMT) * NASA JPL/SDL IRIS X-Band Deep Space Transponder * NASA GSFC Mission Operations Center * NASA Deep Space Network Ground Communication


Flight results

* After a successful launch of the SLS at 1:47 am EST on November 16 2022, The Orion/ICPS performed a Trans-Lunar Injection and separated. * Shortly thereafter, CuSP was deployed from its launch canister in the ICPS. * Twenty-three minutes after deployment, DSN received Open Loop Receiver (OLR) telemetry from CuSP indicated it had booted up, detumbled, deployed solar arrays, and assumed a SAFE, Sun-pointing, orientation. * It was operating perfectly until... * OLR monitoring of the radio signal indicated that the transmitter carrier signal vanished after transmitting for 1 hour and 15 minutes. * No cause has been determined for this end of transmission. * Multiple attempts to receive additional signals from the spacecraft failed through the end of 2022. No contact was made. * The CuSP team 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. This failure was proven to be the failure of a temperature monitor which saturated the ADC inputs of several signals, but not their redundant monitors fed to an independent ADC. * The CuSP team fully investigated an anomalous high IRIS Radio temperature. JPL IRIS engineers traced it to a failure to update a scaling equation in the SMOC EGSE. Once the updated equation was applied, the temperature fell in line with all others. * Plans were to make another attempt during an expected focal convergence, however, no further contact attempts were made to contact the spacecraft. * Official end of mission was declared December 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 CuSP File:Dr Don George.jpg, alt=Dr. Don and the CuSP., Dr. Don George, Mission Engineer, testing the Electrical Power System (EPS) on 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.


Other Artemis 1 CubeSats

* Near-Earth Asteroid Scout by
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
, a
solar sail Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigati ...
spacecraft that was planned to encounter a near-Earth asteroid (mission failure) * BioSentinel, an
astrobiology Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology) is a scientific field within the List of life sciences, life and environmental sciences that studies the abiogenesis, origins, Protocell, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the univ ...
mission * LunIR by Lockheed Martin Space * Lunar IceCube, by the
Morehead State University Morehead State University (MSU) is a public university in Morehead, Kentucky, United States. The university began as Morehead Normal School, which opened its doors in 1887. The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics, a two-yea ...
* CubeSat for Solar Particles (CuSP) * Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map), designed by the
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
* EQUULEUS, submitted by
JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...
and the
University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...
* OMOTENASHI, submitted by JAXA, a lunar lander (mission failure) * Cislunar Explorers,
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
,
Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...
* Earth Escape Explorer (CU-E3),
University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...


References

{{Orbital launches in 2022 CubeSats NASA space probes Missions to the Sun Spacecraft launched in 2022 2022 in the United States Secondary payloads