Flight demonstration of a mini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer onboard the Exocube an Dellingr CubeSat missions.

A mini time of flight Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) has been developed for in situ measurements of ionospheric ion and neutral densities and composition. The INMS is designed for a mass range of ~40 amu and a mass resolution M/dM ~ 12. It occupies a small volume of 10cm x 10 cm x 11cm, weighs ~560 grams and dissipates ~1.8Wtts of peak power. The mini - INMS has flown on the NSF Exocube and on the NASA Dellingr CubeSat missions both on LEO orbits. Improved versions are scheduled to fly on other near feature missions. This presentation will report on initial flight measurements from several orbits and the challenges for delivering science data from a small instrument on small satellites. The demonstration is critical for future small satellite constellation missions.