IDEASSat – A 3U CubeSat for Ionospheric Science and Capacity Building

Building on the heritage of in-situ ionospheric sensors developed at National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan, we present the ongoing development of the Ionospheric Dynamics Exploration and Attitude Subsystem Satellite (IDEASSat) – a 3U CubeSat currently in the fabrication stage, with expected launch in 2020. IDEASSat carries the Compact Ionosphere Probe (CIP) – an all-in-one in-situ plasma sensor with flight heritage from the Advanced Ionosphere Probe (AIP) currently functioning aboard FORMOSAT-5, and will provide measurements of ionospheric structure and variability from a nominal 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit. The spacecraft subsystems are a combination of commercial off the shelf (COTS) and self-developed components designed in collaboration with partners from the International Satellite Program in Research and Education (INSPIRE). Key challenges include high precision pointing requirements of CIP, limited power and downlinkable data volume, as well as developing the necessary fabrication and integration capacity using university resources. We present the concept of operations, design, as well as lessons learned in the development, fabrication, and integration of IDEASSat. In conjunction with INSPIRESat-1 – a 9U SmallSat with the same payload, ionospheric measurements from IDEASSat will extend the coverage of in-situ ionospheric observations from the FORMOSAT-5, further enhancing our observational coverage of ionospheric variability and irregularities. Development of IDEASSat is also serving to build spacecraft design and operations capacity at NCU, providing students with a better appreciation of the relation between space physics and the spacecraft operational environment, as well as the technical, regulatory and management challenges inherent to building a functional spacecraft.