The Scanning Ionospheric Photometer for CubeSats

Abstract:

Sponsored by the Air Force, our team is developing a system capable of providing night-time images of the ionosphere from a 6U CubeSat. Called SIPS (Scanning Ionospheric Photometer System), it integrates a photometer with a scanning mirror providing almost continuous monitoring of the night-side ionosphere. SIPS will be able to monitor features such as plasma irregularities, which can have deleterious effects on satellite positioning and HF communications. SIPS will help understand the nature of geospace perturbations as well as predict space weather. Requiring minimal power and volume, SIPS enables a number of research and science missions for NSF and NASA, as well as space situational awareness operational missions for the Air Force, that can be conducted from low cost to access to space platforms. In this paper we review the novel sensor observation technique and the modular design which makes SIPS compatible with nano and μsatellites, enabling big missions from small packages.