NASA s Earth Science Technology Office CubeSats for Technology Maturation

Transcription

1 NASA s Earth Science Technology Office CubeSats for Technology Maturation Charles D. Norton NASA HQ Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Steve A. Chien, Paula J. Pingree, David M. Rider Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology John Bellardo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo James W. Cutler University of Michigan Michael P. Pasciuto NASA HQ Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Goddard Space Flight Center Acknowledgements: Jason Crusan and Garrett Skrobot from the CSLI and ELaNa Programs Cal Poly, NPS, ULA, and NRO integration and launch services teams

2 NASA Earth Science Missions * * * * *Proposed Mission - Pre-Decisional for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only Copyright California Institute of of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged.

3 Technology Program Overview The Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) is a targeted, science-driven, competed, actively managed, and dynamically communicated technology program and serves as a model for technology development. Competitive, peer-reviewed proposals enable selection of best-of-class technology investments that retire risk before major dollars are invested: a cost-effective approach to technology development and validation. ESTO investment elements include: Observation! Information! Validation! Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) provides robust new instruments and measurement techniques 16 new projects added in FY11 (total funding approximately $67M over 3 years) Advanced Component Technologies (ACT) provides development of critical components and subsystems for instruments and platforms 15 new projects added in FY11 (total funding approximately $16M over 3 years) Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) provides innovative on-orbit and ground capabilities for communication, processing, and management of remotely sensed data and the efficient generation of data products 18 new projects added in FY12 (total funding approximately $23M over 3-4 years) In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) In-orbit technology validation and risk reduction for instrument components and small instruments that could not otherwise be fully tested on the ground or in airborne systems Four 3U CubeSats funded for ~ $13M over four years

4 Science Driven: Enabling the Earth Science Decadal Survey Upon publication of the Earth Science Decadal Survey in 2007, ESTO investments already supported all 18 of the recommended mission concepts. Since then, ESTO has awarded 107 additional technology projects representing an investment of over $211M directly related to the Earth Science priorities outlined by the Decadal Survey * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tier I Tier II Tier III Instrument Technology Investments Information Systems Investments Direct Applicability planned aircraft testing planned balloon testing *Proposed Mission - Pre-Decisional for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only Component Technology Investments Information Systems Investments Secondary Applicability

5 Motivation for CubeSat Technology Flight Validation M-Cubed/COVE-2 High data-rate on-board processing P. Pingree: JPL, U. Michigan Launch Date: Dec (NASA CLI) IPEX Autonomous low-latency product generation S. Chien: JPL, GSFC, Cal Poly SLO Launch Date: Dec (NASA CLI) M-Cubed/COVE Launched VAFB: Oct. 28, 2011 (NASA CLI) GRIFEX Unprecedented frame-rate ROIC/FPA D: Rider JPL, U. Michigan Launch Target: Oct (NASA CLI) ESTO InVEST NRA Selections Overview

6 MCubed/COVE-2: Technology Validation of Image Instrument Processing for ACE* Concept Multiangle Spectropolarimetric Imager (MSPI) for ACE* Decadal Survey Mission Concept Measures cloud and aerosol properties via 9 cameras Each camera processes 95 Mbytes/s of raw video data that must be reduced by two-orders of magnitude for spaceborne deployment Achieved via instrument signal processing not compression Intensity DOLP AirMSPI board with military-grade Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA demonstrates data reduction *Proposed Mission - Pre-Decisional for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only COVE board validates Xilinx Virtex-5 SIRF Rad- Hard by design FPGA and polarimetery algorithm for SpaceMSPI ER-2 with first engineering flight data from AirMSPI MCubed-2 Spacecraft Ground Test Development board processes imagery within laboratory environment Airborne Test Spaceborne Validation ER-2 flights store data on rackmounted disks for ground processing M-Cubed/COVE-2 CubeSat will verify algorithm and hardware for future MSPI instrument

7 IPEX: Technology Validation of Autonomous Low- Latency Product Generation for HyspIRI* Concept Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) for HyspIRI* Decadal Survey Mission Concept Validates direct broadcast, autonomous science oprations, and product delivery technologies for near real-time product generation Proposed spectrometer and thermal IR Imager (TIR) acquire 5 TB/day IPM will provide 20x reduction in data volume for low-latency products *Proposed Mission - Pre-Decisional for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only Candidate HyspIRI Low-latency Products (Burn Scar Data) Ground Test Development board with autonomous processing in laboratory environment 200m/pixel with ~50 deg FOV expected Balloon Test Hundreds of activities scheduled and executed at 100K feet IPEX flight model carries 5 cameras Spaceborne Validation IPEX CubeSat will verify on-board product selection for HyspIRI objectives

8 Technology for GeoStationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE*) Concept 500 km x 500 km scene is imaged onto a 128x128 in-pixel digital ROIC which provides a 4x4 km size pixel at nadir and records spectra in every pixel for 60 seconds per scene 128 pixels 128 pixels Spectra in every pixel captures evolving tropospheric chemistry Rapidly evolving chemistry in the boundary layer GEO-CAPE* would gather science that identifies human versus natural sources of aerosols and ozone precursors, tracks air pollution transport, and studies the dynamics of coastal ecosystems! *Proposed Mission - Pre-Decisional for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only

9 GRIFEX: GEO-CAPE* ROIC In-Flight Performance Experiment GEO-CAPE* Read Out Integrated Circuit Flight Experiment All digital high frame rate ROIC allowing hourly high spatial/spectral measurement of rapidly changing atmospheric chemistry/pollution The ROIC can work with a broad class of detectors and is a key component of the interferometer for the Panchromatic Fourier Transform Spectrometer (PanFTS) planned for GEO-CAPE concept GRIFEX will perform engineering performance assessments of the 4.2 Gbit/s throughput ROIC through flight qualification in space ROIC in field measuring FPA in PanFTS measuring atmospheric composition atmospheric composition Hourly global mapping of atmospheric composition PanFTS on GEO-CAPE 7.5 mm 47 mm < 0.1 kg, 11 W, 16 KhZ 128x micron pixel all-digital FPA GRIFEX optical payload design for on-orbit engineering performance assessment Ground Test Functional Test of ROIC at Table Mountain Ground Station Spaceborne Validation GRIFEX CubeSat will verify engineering performance for GEO-CAPE objectives *Proposed Mission - Pre-Decisional for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only

10 ELaNa-II GEMSat Integration on NRO L-39 December 2013 ELaNa-X Manifest for December 2014 VAFB Manifest of MCubed-2 and IPEX on GEMSat NRO L-39 for 12/5/13 launch VAFB Manifest of GRIFEX on ELaNa-X planned for 10/14 launch

11 In-Space Technology Validation for Earth Science (InVEST) Awards The need to space-validate new technologies is critical and ongoing. The In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) program is intended to fill the gap. The first four InVEST awards (out of 23 proposals) were selected in April The solicitation sought small instruments and instrument subsystems that will advance technology to enable relevant Earth science measurements and targeted the CubeSat platform. Total first-year funding is approximately $3M. The Microwave Radiometer Technology Acceleration (MiRaTA*) Cubesat would validate multiple subsystem technologies and demonstrate new sensing modalities that could dramatically enhance the capabilities of future weather and climate sensing architectures - W. Blackwell, MIT Lincoln Laboratory The Radiometer Assessment Using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN*) project would demonstrate a bolometer radiometer that is compact, low cost, and absolutely accurate to NIST traceable standards. RAVAN could lead to affordable CubeSat constellations that, in sufficient numbers, might measure Earth s radiative diurnal cycle and absolute energy imbalance to climate accuracies (globally at 0.3 W/m2) for the first time. - L. Dyrud, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory HARP Inst. Bus The Cubesat Flight Demonstration of a Photon Counting Infrared Detector (LMPC* CubeSat) would demonstrate in space, a new detector with high quantum efficiency and single photon level response at several important remote sensing wavelength detection bands from 0.9 to 4.0 microns. - R. Fields, The Aerospace Corporation The HyperAngular Rainbow Polarimeter HARP*-CubeSat would validate a technology required by the Aerosol- Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) mission concept and prove the capabilities of a highly-accurate, wide-fov, hyperangle, imaging polarimeter for characterizing aerosol and cloud properties. - J. V. Martins, University of Maryland, Baltimore County *Proposed Mission - Pre-Decisional for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only

12 To Learn More Visit the NEW ESTO Website: esto.nasa.gov And Browse the ESTO Technology Portfolio