Recommending Low-Cost Compact Space Environment and Space Weather Effects Sensor Suites for NASA Missions

Abstract

As miniaturized spacecraft (e.g., cubesats and smallsats) and instrumentation become an increasingly indispensable part of space exploration and scientific investigations, it is important to understand their potential susceptibility to space weather impacts resulting from the sometimes volatile space environment. There are multitude of complexities involved in how space environment interacts with different space hardware/electronics. Measurements of such impacts, however, have been lacking. Therefore, we recommend developing and/or procuring low-cost, low-power consumption, and compact sensor suites (mainly for space weather and impact purposes) and flying them on all future NASA (and U.S in general) missions in order to measure and quantify space weather impacts, in addition to the main instrumentation.