Compact Energetic Charged Particle Sensor

The space environment has a significant and deleterious effect on US space assets. Spacecraft anomalies that lead to effects ranging from data dropouts, decrease in capability, mission degradation and mission failure have occurred over the years. We propose to develop a Compact Energetic Charged Particle sensor (C-ECP), compatible with the limited resources of 100-kg class satellites, that will provide monitoring and warning of hazardous space weather conditions. The C-ECP will measure electrons from 0.1 keV to 5 MeV and protons from 2 MeV to 100 MeV – the most significant environments for spacecraft damage. The C-ECP design goals are a 12 x 12 x 12 cm3 volume, a 2 kg mass, and 5 Watt power consumption.