ICESat-2 & Others

ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2), part of NASA's Earth Observing System, is a planned satellite mission for measuring ice sheet elevation and sea ice freeboard, as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics.

The SurfSat (Surface charging Satellite) is a 2U CubeSat mission developed at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to measure plasma-induced surface charging and electrostatic discharge. It will take in-situ measurements of the ground current waveforms from chosen common spacecraft dielectric material samples, measure the spacecraft and material potentials, and will use a Langmuir probe system to measure the ambient plasma environment.

ELFIN (Electron Losses and Fields Investigation) or ELFIN A is a 3U CubeSat mission under development by the Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences department at UCLA in collaboration with the Aerospace Corporation to explore the mechanisms responsible for the loss of relativistic electrons from the radiation belts.

CP 7 or DAVE (Damping And Vibrations Experiment) is a collaboration between Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems and PolySat. The payload is a particle-dampening experiment designed to measure its frequency response in microgravity. PolySat is developing a 1U CubeSat for this technical feasibility demonstration, which may lead to future applications in spacecraft vibration mitigation. Particle dampeners hold the promise of providing superior performance at a reduced cost compared to existing technologies.