SMuK 2021 – scientific programme

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 2: Sun and Heliosphere II

EP 2.1: Invited Talk

Monday, August 30, 2021, 16:30–17:00, H7

How can small satellites help advancing our physical understanding in heliospheric physics — •Noé Lugaz¹, Christina O. Lee², Nada Al-Haddad¹, Réka Winslow¹, Dave Curtis², Rob Lillis², and Toni Galvin¹ — ¹Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA — ²Space Science Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

The past decade has witnessed a significant growth in the private space industry, with new companies building small spacecraft and offering private launch opportunities. Here, I will discuss recent developments and ongoing projects taking advantage of the lower costs of space hardware and the increase in launch opportunities. In particular, this may present opportunities and challenges on how we think of and design space missions, as new orbits and swarms of spacecraft become more important than new instrumentations. In addition, the desire to lower costs and obtain uniform datasests must be balanced by the need to continue promoting diversity in the centers, laboratories and universities building space hardware.

Interplanetary and space weather sciences may be especially ripe for such developments since they are dominated by large and costly missions (Solar Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe, SWFO-L1, L5 mission) and must often rely on single-spacecraft measurements to understand complex three-dimensional solar eruptions, shocks, solar wind structures and energetic particle events. I will end by discussing some recent concepts that may take advantage of smallsat technology to advance our understanding of interplanetary transients.