Mini-MIGHTI: A Prototype Sensor for Thermospheric Red-Line Neutral Wind Measurements from a 6U CubeSat

Mini-MIGHTI leverages the extensive development and testing of the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) on the NASA Ionospheric Connection (ICON) Explorer mission currently scheduled for launch in 2018. Like MIGHTI, mini-MIGHTI utilizes the Doppler Asymmetric Heterodyne Spectroscopy (DASH) technique to measure altitude-resolved neutral winds in a limb imaging geometry, however MIGHTI measures red and green line winds plus thermospheric temperatures, while the scientific objectives of mini-MIGHTI are limited to measuring only red-line winds over a smaller altitude range (200 - 300 km). The mini-MIGHTI instrument uses the MIGHTI flight spare interferometer, which is heart of MIGHTI, but the limited scientific scope of mini-MIGHTI enables the interferometer to be combined with more compact entrance and exit optics such that the instrument can be deployed on a 6U CubeSat. Currently we are fabricating components for a prototype demonstration of the mini-MIGHTI optical system. Assembly and performance testing of the optical system is expected to begin in early 2019. In this presentation we discuss the instrument concept, design challenges, and expected performance of mini-MIGHTI.