Novel Radiation Design Approach for CubeSat Based Missions

Spacecraft design innovations enabled by nanosatellite, and CubeSat-based, missions often requires a greater-than-desirable amount of risk associated with space radiation design. The accelerating rate of technology advancement in this smaller form factor introduces more advanced / sensitive payloads wherefore a novel approach to radiation environment modeling and design is required in order to minimize risk associated with the development and deployment of advanced / strategic payloads. The space radiation dose to which spacecraft at Low Earth Orbit altitudes (for CubeSats typically 400 km to 800 km) are subjected is dominated by contributions from geomagnetically trapped protons (typical energy range 0.1 MeV to \u3e100 MeV) and electrons (typical energy range 0.1 MeV to 6.0 MeV). The present paper describes a radiation design approach based upon commonly available design tools as well as proposes a novel mission concept, sufficiently executable via a low power 1U vehicle, for purposes of characterizing the anisotropic total radiation dose at Low Earth Orbit altitudes. Analyses and discussions summarized herein demonstrate the importance of focusing on accurate determination of the radiation environment in the presence of spacecraft structure