Overview of the Performance of the Compact Total Electron Content Sensor (CTECS) on the Space Environmental NanoSatellite Experiment (SENSE)

The Air Force’s Space & Missile Systems Center (SMC) SENSE mission consists of two identical cubesat buses with space weather payloads. One of the goals of the SENSE mission is to demonstrate the operational potential and usefulness of space weather measurements from a cubesat platform. The payloads on the two cubesats include the Cubesat Tiny Ionospheric Photometer (SRI), Wind Ion Neutral Composite Suite (NRL), and Compact Total Electron Content GPS radio occultation sensor (CTECS). After initial contact with both space vehicles (SV), we were able to confirm successful operation of both CTECS. Because of power issues on SV2, only SV1 has provided consistent data. In this presentation, we present an overview of the CTECS sensor. Then we present initial CTECS data, discuss the data quality, and lessons learned.