Low Cost Environmental Sensors for Spaceflight: NMP Space Environmental Monitor (SEM) Requirements

An outstanding problem in spaceflight is the lack of adequate sensors for monitoring the space environment and its effects on engineering systems. By adequate, we mean low cost in terms of mission impact (e.g., low price, low mass/size, low power, low data rate, and low design impact). The New Millennium Program (NMP) is investigating the development of such a low-cost Space Environmental Monitor (SEM) package for inclusion on its technology validation flights. This effort follows from the need by NMP to characterize the space environment during testing so that potential users can extrapolate the test results to end-use conditions. The immediate objective of this effort is to develop a small diagnostic sensor package that could be obtained from commercial sources. Environments being considered are: contamination, atomic oxygen, ionizing radiation, cosmic radiation, EMI, and temperature. This talk describes the requirements and rational for selecting these environments and reviews a preliminary design that includes a micro-controller data logger with data storage and interfaces to the sensors and spacecraft. If successful, such a sensor package could be the basis of a unique, long term program for monitoring the effects of the space environment on spacecraft systems.