A Compact Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer for CubeSat/SmallSat Platforms

and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) for in situ measurements of ions and neutrals H, He, N, O, N2, O2 with M/dM of approximately 12 at an incoming energy range of 0-50eV. The INMS is based on front end optics, post acceleration, gated time of flight, ESA and CEM or MCP detectors. The compact sensor has a dual symmetric configuration with the ion and neutral sensor heads on opposite sides and with full electronics in the middle. The neutral front end optics includes thermionic emission ionization and ion blocking grids, and the ion front end optics includes spacecraft potential compensation grids. The electronics include front end, fast gating, HVPS, ionizer, TOF binning and full bi directional C&DH digital electronics. The data package includes 400 mass bins each for ions and neutrals and key housekeeping data for instrument health and calibration. The data sampling can be commanded as fast as 10 msec per frame (corresponding to ~80 m spatial separation) in burst mode, and has significant onboard storage capability and data compression scheme. Experimental data from instrument testing with both ions and neutrals will be presented. INMS was recently launched on The ExoCube 3U CubeSat mission (SMAP launch) on January 31, 2015. A second upgraded INMS is scheduled to be delivered August 2015 to Dellingr 6U CubeSat mission to be launched in 2016. This miniaturized instrument fills a 1.5U volume, weighs only 560 g and requires nominal power of 1.6W. Summary GSFC INMS Team: Marcello Rodriguez, Nick Paschalidis, Sarah Jones, Ed Sittler, Dennis Chornay, Paulo Uribe, Tim Cameron, Bobby Nanan