CAREER: Securing the Future of Electric Field Measurements in Space Physics

职业：确保空间物理电场测量的未来

• 批准号: 2338825
• 负责人: Katherine Goodrich
• 金额: $ 107.61万
• 依托单位: West Virginia University Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2029-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2338825&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Securing; Future; Electric; Field

The space physics community has spent the last decade optimizing particle and magnetic field instruments to operate on small spacecraft or CubeSat. This enables more high-quality measurements of space plasma with cost-effective hardware. The same optimization of electric field instruments has not been achieved, leaving a gap in our ability to observe the space environment with cost-effective spacecraft. Accurate electric field measurements are crucial for understanding the space plasma processes, particularly at small scales. This CAREER project seeks to narrow this gap and take a vital step in optimizing electric field instrumentation to operate on CubeSats. Doing so allows us to step toward a future where the most fundamental physics can be thoroughly observed and studied. The educational objectives are to develop open-source software to allow students to access and analyze data, and engage students in hardware flight-readiness testing. This award mainly supports an early-career female professor in West Virginia, an EPSCoR state. In this study, the PI will design a CubeSat mission specifically utilizing electric field double probe instrumentation. It will observe plasma dynamics in the Auroral Acceleration Region (AAR), a plasma region that bridges the Earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere. This mission will address the scientific questions: 1) What is the perpendicular spatial and temporal structure of the electric and magnetic field in the AAR? 2) What is the perpendicular spatial and temporal behavior of the electrons in the AAR? 3) How do the first two questions vary in altitude? We will design and utilize the electric field instrument necessary to address these questions for this mission. This design will be the first step in optimizing electric field instrumentation for small-sat technology. This will enable the pursuit of numerous future opportunities to observe and study space physics in cost-effective ways and offer her expertise in higher-class missions that utilize electric field instruments. Additionally, this study will expose opportunities in space science to underrepresented students and provide possible gateways to career opportunities in space physics. During this study, project high school students in West Virginia will participate in various activities related to the design of the CubeSat. This will include analyzing observational data, coding, and preparing CubeSat hardware for spaceflight.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在过去的十年中，太空物理学界优化了粒子和磁场仪器，以在小型航天器或立方体上运行。 这可以通过具有成本效益的硬件对空间等离子体的高质量测量。 尚未实现相同的电场仪器的优化，从而使我们可以使用具有成本效益的航天器观察太空环境的能力存在差距。 准确的电场测量对于理解空间等离子体过程至关重要，尤其是在小尺度上。 这个职业项目旨在缩小这一差距，并迈出至关重要的一步，以优化电场仪器以在立方体上运行。 这样做使我们能够迈向一个可以彻底观察和研究最基本物理学的未来。 教育目标是开发开源软件，以允许学生访问和分析数据，并让学生参与硬件飞行准备测试。 该奖项主要支持EPSCOR州西弗吉尼亚州的一位早期女教授。 在这项研究中，PI将设计一个专门利用电场双探测器仪器的立方体任务。 它将观察到极光加速区（AAR）的等离子体动力学，这是一个桥接地球电离层和磁层的等离子体区域。 该任务将解决科学问题：1）AAR中电场和磁场的垂直空间和时间结构是什么？ 2）AAR中电子的垂直空间和时间行为是什么？ 3）前两个问题在海拔高度如何变化？ 我们将设计和利用必要的电场工具来解决此任务的这些问题。 该设计将是优化小型SAT技术的电场仪器的第一步。 这将使追求许多未来的机会，以具有成本效益的方式观察和研究太空物理，并在利用电场工具的高级任务中提供专业知识。 此外，这项研究将使太空科学的机会暴露给代表性不足的学生，并为太空物理学的职业机会提供可能的门户。 在这项研究中，西弗吉尼亚州的高中学生将参加与Cubesat设计有关的各种活动。 这将包括分析观察数据，编码和为SpaceFlight准备Cubesat硬件。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准，认为值得通过评估来获得支持。