SA32A-06
ExoCube INMS with Neutral Hydrogen Mode
Wednesday, 16 December 2015: 11:45
2007 (Moscone West)
Sarah Jones1, Nikolaos Paschalidis2, Marcello Rodriguez1, Edward C Sittler Jr3, Dennis J Chornay4, Timothy Cameron5, Paulo Uribe1, Giriraj Nanan1, John Noto6, Lara Waldrop7, Edwin J Mierkiewicz8, Derek Gardner9, Susan M Nossal10, Jordi Puig-Suari11 and John Bellardo11, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA/GSFC-Heliophysics Sci, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 670, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (4)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (5)ADNET Systems, Inc., Reston, VA, United States, (6)Organization Not Listed, Washington, DC, United States, (7)University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States, (8)Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, United States, (9)University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States, (10)Univ Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States, (11)California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo, CA, United States
Abstract:
The ExoCube mission launched on Jan 31 2015 into a polar orbit to acquire global knowledge of in situ densities of neutral and ionized H, He, and O in the upper ionosphere and lower exosphere. The CubeSat platform is used in combination with incoherent scatter radar and optical ground stations distributed throughout the Americas. ExoCube seeks to obtain the first in situ measurement of neutral exospheric hydrogen and will measure in situ atomic oxygen for the first time in decades. The compact Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) developed by GSFC uses the gated Time of Flight technique for in situ measurements of ions and neutrals (H, He, N, O, N2, O2) with M/dM of approximately 10. The compact sensor has a dual symmetric configuration with ion and neutral sensor heads. Neutral particles are ionized by electron impact using a thermionic emitter. In situ measurements of neutral hydrogen are notoriously difficult as historically the signal has been contaminated by hydrogen outgassing which persists even years after commissioning. In order to obtain neutral atmospheric hydrogen fluxes, either the atmospheric peak and outgassing peak must be well resolved, or the outgassing component subtracted off. The ExoCube INMS employs a separate mode, specifically for measuring neutral Hydrogen. The details of this mode and lessons learned will be presented as well as in flight instrument validation data for the neutral channel and preliminary flight ion spectra. At the time of abstract submission, the ExoCube spacecraft is currently undergoing attitude control maneuvers to orient INMS in the ram direction for science operations.
