The NSF Firefly CubeSat mission: Rideshare mission to study energetic electrons produced by lightning

Author

Rowland, Douglas E. ; Hill, Joanne ; Uribe, Paulo ; Klenzing, Jeffrey ; Hunsaker, Floyd ; Fowle, Maxwell ; Simms, Ken ; Hancock, Holly ; Saulino, Mark ; Guzman, David ; Willingham, Allison ; Weatherwax, Allan ; Kujawski, Joseph ; McColgan, M. ; Carroll, R

Author_Institution

Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, MD, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-12 March 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

12

Abstract

The NSF Firefly CubeSat is a 3U mission designed to perform cutting-edge science, as a secondary payload^1,2. Firefly will be the first dedicated mission launched to study Terrestrial Gamma ray Flashes (TGFs), their link to lightning, and their effect in producing energetic electrons that may become stably trapped in the inner radiation belt. Firefly demonstrates the capability of small missions such as CubeSat to do important, focused science, with maximal student involvement, and with a minimal budget and available resources. This presentation will focus on the Firefly mission design, as well as important lessons learned in the development, testing, and design. Future developments in CubeSat-class spacecraft for measurements of energetic radiation will be discussed.

Keywords

atmospheric electron precipitation; atmospheric techniques; atmospheric thermodynamics; lightning; space vehicles; 3U mission; Firefly mission design; NSF Firefly CubeSat mission; Rideshare mission; Terrestrial Gamma ray Flashes; energetic electrons; energetic radiation; inner radiation belt; lightning; secondary payload; spacecraft; Extraterrestrial measurements; Fires; Instruments; Lightning; Optical variables measurement; Satellites; Space vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2011 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7350-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2011.5747231

Filename

5747231