Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment: a mission development history and future possibilities from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's first ultraviolet astronomy CubeSat

Article


Patton, Tom, France, Kevin and Egan, Arika. 2024. "Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment: a mission development history and future possibilities from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's first ultraviolet astronomy CubeSat." Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems. 10 (3). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.10.3.030301
Article Title

Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment: a mission development history and future possibilities from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's first ultraviolet astronomy CubeSat

ERA Journal ID210799
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsPatton, Tom, France, Kevin and Egan, Arika
Journal TitleJournal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
Journal Citation10 (3)
Article Number030301
Number of Pages21
Year2024
PublisherSPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering
Place of PublicationUnited States
ISSN2329-4124
2329-4221
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.10.3.030301
Web Address (URL)https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/Journal-of-Astronomical-Telescopes-Instruments-and-Systems/volume-10/issue-3/030301/Colorado-Ultraviolet-Transit-Experiment--a-mission-development-history-and/10.1117/1.JATIS.10.3.030301.short
Abstract

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) first dedicated exoplanetary spectroscopy mission, the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE), is used to search for signatures of atmospheric escape, the process by which constituent gases depart a planetary atmosphere. Through transit spectroscopy, the signs of escape driven by the high level of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from their parent stars are detectable around close-in planets. CUTE is a 6U CubeSat developed and operated by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, United States; it looks for these signs of escape by surveying close-in extrasolar planets in the near-UV (2479 to 3306 Å) with 208 × 84mm Cassegrain telescope-fed, UV-enhanced charged coupled device. Funded through a NASA ROSES proposal in 2017 and forced to deal with a worldwide pandemic during the heart of its fabrication and test program, CUTE has demonstrated the capability of small satellites to launch on schedule and perform challenging astronomical measurements. We will highlight the CUTE mission’s science objectives, implementation, and tribulations on its road to delivering a successful science program while discussing lessons learned pertaining to the development of CubeSat programs and the application of those lessons for a CUTE-style follow-on mission in the future.

KeywordsColorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment; ultraviolet; spectroscopy; escape; transit; CubeSat
Contains Sensitive ContentDoes not contain sensitive content
ANZSRC Field of Research 20205101. Astronomical sciences
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Byline AffiliationsUniversity of Southern Queensland
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, United States
University of Colorado Boulder, United States
Johns Hopkins University, United States
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https://research.usq.edu.au/item/zv089/colorado-ultraviolet-transit-experiment-a-mission-development-history-and-future-possibilities-from-the-national-aeronautics-and-space-administration-s-first-ultraviolet-astronomy-cubesat

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