Science
The INSPIRE program provides hands-on experiences for students to design, build, and operate satellites that return data with important scientific and societal impacts. (Courtesy LASP)
INSPIRE aims to provide a constellation of Earth & space weather observing satellites and develop a university nano/micro satellite platform to address some of the outstanding questions in quantifying climate change, atmospheric coupling processes, and space weather effects. INSPIRE offers participating universities and industry partners the opportunity for cutting-edge research in the earth sciences and developing spacecraft technologies.
INSPIRESats carry a variety of payloads for ionospheric measurements (1, 2, 4 & 6), an ultraviolet imager (3) and an infrared imager (3 & 4) conducting Earth and solar observations. IS-3 also will carry a flux gate magnetometer for measuring magnetic fields in the auroral oval.
The spacecraft for all of these instruments is the INSPIRE spacecraft bus. All four missions use a similar architecture for onboard computer, power modules, flight software, etc., which have all been developed as part of the INSPIRE program. The INSPIRE spacecraft bus is a custom-sized nano/micro satellite that can be deployed via a ring deployer or cubesat canister from a variety of launch vehicles.
Publications
The INSPIRESat-1: Mission, science, and engineering
IDEASSat (INSPIRESat-2): A 3U CubeSat mission for ionospheric science
UVSQ-SAT, a Pathfinder CubeSat Mission for Observing Essential Climate Variables