The Experiment for Space Radiation Analysis: A 12U CubeSat to Explore the Earth's Radiation Belts

Abstract

The Experiment for Space Radiation Analysis (ESRA) is the next in the series of Demonstration and Validation (DemVal) projects the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) program will fly. The ESRA program will mature technologies such as the novel Wide-field-of-view Plasma Spectrometer (WPS) and the Energetic Charged Particle (ECP) telescope, along with high voltage power supply, a 3U Eurocard single board computers, flight software architecture, and analog-to-digital electronics. The WPS and ECP sensors are intended to actively monitor the local space environment, thus allowing for the attribution and rapid anomaly resolution of unanticipated instrument or spacecraft behavior as a result of space weather effects.