AESP-14

AESP-14 [ITA]

AESP-14 satellite is a brazilian 1U CubeSat, which was developed as a scientific and technological cooperation basically between the ITA with the LIT – INPE-MCT and other departments from the INPE, in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil.

The mission objectives are:

• to investigate the generation mechanism of the equatorial plasma bubbles (also known as equatorial spread F) through the measurement of their occurrence and distribution characteristics on a global scale and as a function of local time, season and the ambient ionospheric conditions. Special attention will be given to the Brazilian longitude sector where their occurrence is known to be more frequent and intense as compared to other longitudes.
• The in situ measurement of the plasma parameters for observation of dynamic and electrodynamic processes associated with plasma bubbles, Study of the plasma instability processes, measurement of the ambient ionospheric plasma parameters for providing a wider data base and to make a critical study of problems known to be associated with some of the plasma measurement techniques.

The payload of AESP-14 consists of a Langmuir Probe for measurement of electron density and temperature of the ionospheric plasma. The payload was developed in the department at Space and Atmospheric Sciences of INPE.

AESP-14 was deployed from the International Space Station at 14:30 UTC on 5 February 2015. No signals from the satellite were received.