Collaborative Research: CubeSat: A U.S. CubeSat Constellation for the QB50 Mission (QBUS)

合作研究：CubeSat：用于 QB50 任务 (QBUS) 的美国 CubeSat 星座

• 批准号: 1242912
• 负责人: Sigrid Elschot
• 金额: $ 18.63万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-05-01 至 2019-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1242912&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; CubeSat; U.S.; Constellation

This project by a consortium of six institutions describes an initiative, named QBUS, to participate in the international QB50 cubesat network.QB50 is an international network of 50 CubeSats for multi-point, in-situ measurements in the largely unexplored lower thermosphere. Led by the Von Karman Institute (VKI) of Belgium, the QB50 project is predominantly funded from a FP7 Grant by the European Union (EU) and includes international participation from more than 30 countries. The idea behind the project is that the EU grant will supply the science instruments and a joint launch for all 50 satellites, which will be provided by participating teams that will secure their own independent funding for CubSat production and ground station operation. The plan for QB50 is that all 50 CubeSats will be launched together in 2015-2016 on a Shtil-2.1 from Murmansk in northern Russia into a circular orbit at 320 km altitude, inclination 79º. Due to atmospheric drag, the orbits will decay and the CubeSats will be able to explore all layers of the lower thermosphere without the need for on-board propulsion, down to 90 or 100 km, depending on the quality of their thermal design. It is expected that the network will spread around the Earth (in a single orbit plane) providing a range of spacing and temporal revisit times. The lifetime of the CubeSats from deployment until atmosphere re-entry will be less than three months. Each QB50 satellite is required to carry one of three standardized sensor packages: a plasma package, a neutral package or a composition package. The plasma package is based on a miniaturized Langmuir probe providing plasma density, the neutral package measures the atomic and molecular Oxygen density, and the composition package is an Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS).The partners of the QBUS consortium (3 research universities, one Hispanic minority undergraduate university, and 2 national laboratories) all have significant CubeSat and Ionosphere-Thermosphere (IT) science experience. The QBUS team will build 4 identical 2U CubeSat flight units based on a joint design, with participating members providing various components of the usual satellite functions (attitude determination and control, uplink and downlink telecommunications, power subsystem including a battery and body-mounted solar cells, on-board data handling and storage by a CPU). Of the three available options, the QBUS team has been approved by the QB50 project to fly the INMS sensor built by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL). This instrument will measure atmospheric composition via abundance determination of neutral atomic O, molecular O2 and N2. QBUS as part of QB50 offers a unique opportunity for dense and distributed in-situ measurements of the most poorly characterized state parameter: neutral and ion composition from 100-320 km. The project will use measurements from QBUS, QB50, and complementary ground-based observations to characterize and understand how compositional changes are created by energy inputs, propagated and ultimately equilibrated within the IT system. Specifically, it will be possible, for the first time, to quantify the effect of composition changes (primarily O/N2) on electron density changes across temporal scales (minutes to months) and spatial scales (10-s km to global).The project constitutes a particularly creative and cost-effective approach. The multi-university and national Laboratory solution proposed entails partners sharing and leading by their specific strengths. Efficiency of numbers and division of labor by experience will result in tremendous program costs savings. In addition, QBUS constitutes substantial leveraging on the international QB50 project. As a result of U.S. funded participation in QB50 the entire U.S. science community will have the opportunity to access the full constellation dataset from QB50. The QB50/QBUS program also serves as impetus for unprecedented coordination between NSF-sponsored facilities and instruments for in-situ and ground based campaigns to enable IT discovery. The project has tremendous educational impacts. It will directly support the training of the next generation of instrument engineers and geoscientists at 4 universities (one of which is minority serving) in the consortium, expecting to provide around 200 students hands-on involvement in the development, testing and operations of the QBUS CubeSats. It will facilitate additional student participation across the United States and internationally through use of derived data products from the entire QB50 mission.

该项目由六个机构组成的联盟提出了一项名为 QBUS 的倡议，旨在参与国际 QB50 立方体卫星网络。QB50 是一个由 50 颗立方体卫星组成的国际网络，用于在很大程度上未经勘探的低热层进行多点现场测量。比利时冯卡门研究所 (VKI) 表示，QB50 项目主要由欧盟 (EU) 的 FP7 拨款资助，并包括来自多个国家的国际参与该项目背后的想法是，欧盟拨款将为所有 50 颗卫星提供科学仪器和联合发射，这些资金将由参与团队提供，这些团队将为 CubSat 生产和地面站计划确保自己的独立资金。 QB50 的计划是，所有 50 颗立方体卫星将于 2015 年至 2016 年在 Shtil-2.1 上从俄罗斯北部摩尔曼斯克一起发射到高度为 320 公里的圆形轨道，倾角79°。由于大气阻力，轨道将会衰减，立方体卫星将能够探索较低热层的所有层，而无需机载推进，可达 90 或 100 公里，具体取决于其热设计的质量。预计该网络将遍布地球（在单个轨道平面上），提供一定范围的间隔和时间重访时间，立方体卫星从部署到重返大气层的寿命将少于三个月。 QB50卫星需要携带三种标准化传感器包之一：等离子体包、中性包或成分包。等离子体包基于提供等离子体密度的小型朗缪尔探针，中性包测量原子和分子氧密度，组成包是离子中性质谱仪 (INMS)。QBUS 联盟的合作伙伴（3 所研究型大学、1 所西班牙裔少数民族本科大学和 2 所国家实验室）均拥有重要的 CubeSat 和QBUS 团队将根据联合设计建造 4 个相同的 2U CubeSat 飞行单元，参与成员提供常用卫星功能的各种组件（姿态确定和控制、上行链路和下行链路电信、电源子系统）。在三个可用选项中，QBUS 团队已获得 QB50 项目的批准，可以飞行所建造的 INMS 传感器。作为 QB50 的一部分，该仪器将通过测定中性原子 O、分子 O2 和 N2 的丰度来测量大气成分，为最贫乏的密集和分布式现场测量提供了独特的机会。特征状态参数：100-320 km 的中性和离子成分该项目将使用 QBUS、QB50 的测量和补充地面观测来表征和了解能量输入如何产生成分变化，具体来说，将首次量化成分变化（主要是 O/N2）对跨时间尺度（分钟到月）和空间尺度的电子密度变化的影响。距离全球 10 公里）。这些项目构成了一种特别有创意且具有成本效益的方法，所提出的多大学和国家实验室解决方案需要合作伙伴通过其特定优势进行共享和领导，从而实现数量效率和经验分工。在此外，QBUS 还对国际 QB50 项目产生了重大影响，由于美国资助参与 QB50，整个美国科学界将有机会访问 QB50/QBUS 计划的完整星座数据集。还推动了 NSF 赞助的设施和仪器之间进行前所未有的协调，以实现 IT 发现，这将直接产生巨大的教育影响。支持联盟内 4 所大学（其中一所是少数民族大学）培养下一代仪器工程师和地球科学家，预计将有约 200 名学生亲身参与 QBUS CubeSats 的开发、测试和操作。通过使用整个 QB50 任务的派生数据产品，促进美国和国际上更多的学生参与。