An Innovative Low-Cost Program for Neutral Density and Wind Research With Small Satellites

The Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer (DANDE) is a 50 kg, spherical spacecraft being developed at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The goal of the DANDE mission is to provide an improved understanding of the satellite drag environment in the lower-thermosphere. To achieve this goal DANDE will measure in-situ neutral density, composition, and horizontal winds between 200 and 350 km. The relationship between composition, density and winds during disturbed atmospheric conditions and the relative effect on satellite drag will be addressed using DANDE measurements. DANDE is an extremely low-cost mission supported in part through the AFRL University Nanosatellite program. A low-cost design is achieved by using commercial technology and accelerometers as well as innovative miniaturized wind and atmospheric temperature spectrometer (WATS) developed at the Goddard Space Flight Center. As a secondary payload, this low-cost mission-model will provide a reproducible and reliable method for obtaining global space weather data on launches of opportunity. The result of commissioning such spacecraft into various orbits is continuity of space weather information related to the neutral thermosphere for both scientific analysis and now-casting purposes. Finally, DANDE will provide a way for empirical atmospheric models to be calibrated in near real-time while validating first-principles models through in-situ data. University of Colorado graduate and undergraduate students are designing and integrating the spacecraft to be delivered for environmental testing by summer of 2009.