A New Instrument Design for Imaging Low Energy Neutral Atoms

The MidSTAR-2 satellite, to be built at the US Naval Academy as a follow-on to the successful MidSTAR-1 satellite, will launch in 2011 and carry three Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) experiments developed under Goddard's Internal Research and Development (IRAD) program. One of these GSFC instruments, the Miniature Imager for Neutral Ionospheric atoms and Magnetospheric Electrons (MINI-ME) builds on the heritage of the Goddard-developed Low-Energy Neutral Atom (LENA) imager launched on the IMAGE spacecraft in 2000. MINI- ME features a Venetian-blind conversion surface assembly that improves both light rejection and conversion efficiency in a smaller and lighter package than LENA making this an highly effective instrument for viewing solar wind charge exchange with terrestrial and planetary exospheres. We will describe the MINI-ME prototyping effort and its science targets, also including time variability of ENA fluxes and charge-exchange interactions in the upper atmosphere from the terrestrial ring current source.