CSSWE (Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment) is a 3U-CubeSat designed and developed by students of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder).
The objective of the science mission is to address fundamental questions pertaining to the relationship between solar flares and energetic particles. These questions include the acceleration and loss mechanisms of outer radiation belt electrons. The goal is to measure differential fluxes of relativistic electrons in the energy range of 0.5-2.9 MeV and protons in 10-40 MeV. This project is a collaborative effort between the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES) at the University of Colorado, which includes the participation of students, faculty, and professional engineers.
The science goals of the CSSWE mission are to study:
- How flare location, magnitude, and frequency relate to the timing, duration, and energy spectrum of SEPs reaching Earth
- How the energy spectrum of radiation belt electrons evolve and how this evolution relates to the acceleration mechanism
To accomplish these goals CSSWE has a requirement for a minimum of 3 months of science operations based on expected flare and geomagnetic storm frequency. The first month of operations will be utilized for systems stabilization and check out.
The satellite was launched on the ELaNa-6 mission.
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