[P-EM12] Coupling Processes in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere System

[PEM12-32] IDEASSat: A 3U CubeSat Mission for Ionospheric Science and Expanded in-Situ Observations

*Loren Chang¹, Chi-Kuang Chao¹, Yi Duann¹, Yi-Chung Chiu¹, Rong Tsai-Lin¹, Tzu-Ya Tai¹, Wei-Hao Luo¹, Chi-Ting Liao¹, Hsin-Tzu Liu¹, Amal Chandran², Cheng-Ling Kuo¹, Jann-Yenq Liu¹ (1.Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University, 2.Satellite Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Keywords:Ionosphere, Scintillation, CubeSat

The Ionospheric Dynamics Exploration and Attitude Subsystem Satellite (IDEASSat / INSPIRESat-2) is a three-unit (U) CubeSat developed with the objective of providing in-situ measurements of the Earth's ionosphere in order to quantify both global scale ionospheric variability and small scale irregularities. The science payload is the Compact Ionospheric Probe (CIP) - an all in one in-situ plasma sensor developed at Taiwan National Central University (NCU), which is the miniaturized version of the larger Advanced Ionospheric Probe (AIP) that is carried and operational aboard the 450 kg FORMOSAT-5 spacecraft. The spacecraft has been developed by NCU in partnership with the International Satellite Program in Research and Education (INSPIRE) consortium, and is funded by the Taiwan National Space Organization (NSPO), Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Education as part of the first national effort to encourage small satellite development at Taiwan universities. IDEASSat will work in conjunction with FORMOSAT-5, as well as the INSPIRESat-1 and ARCADE/INSPIRESat-4 small satellites to provide ionospheric observations spanning different altitudes and local times. IDEASSat will be launched in late 2020. In this report, we describe the IDEASSat mission and spacecraft design, the potential for combined multi-satellite observations, as well as unique lessons learned as part of the development process.