The Snipe Mission for Observing Small Scale Ionospheric and Magnetospheric Plasma Phenomena

SNIPE mission consisted of four nanosatellites will do ambitious scientific observations with formation flying changing each satellite distance from 10 km to several hundred km. With such a unique operation, we can measure the spatial and temporal variation of near-earth space plasma phenomena. The SNIPE mission will be launched into a polar orbit of the altitude of ~600 km in 2021. The SNIPE mission is equipped with scientific payloads which can measure the following geophysical parameters: density/temperature of cold ionospheric plasmas, energetic electron flux, and magnetic fields. In addition, this mission has enhanced communication equipment, UHF up/downlink, S-band up/downlink and Iridium module. For the attitude control, this mission will use three-axis reaction wheels with sun sensor, gyro, and star tracker. KASI, KARI and Yonsei university cooperate for this mission, and lots of domestic companies provide subsystems on the SNIPE mission. The SNIPE mission will pave way for the next generation CubeSat missions in Korea.