Optics Payload System for 12U Sun Monitoring CubeSat

As American and international space agencies are planning to establish a long-term human presence in deep space, it is crucial to understand risk associated with solar activity. The Solar and Coronal Observation of Radiation and Catastrophic events to Humans (SCORCH) CubeSat is a response to NASA Strategic Knowledge Gap II-A, which is the need to Define active regions that are potential Solar Energetic Particles/Coronal Mass Ejection sites over the 1/2 of a solar rotation.” The primary objective of the SCORCH mission is to provide real-time monitoring and alert capabilities through a 12U heliocentric CubeSat. This report details the design of the scientific payload, which includes a white light coronagraph and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imager. The white light coronagraph is included to monitor coronal behavior, whereas the extreme ultraviolet imager will analyze the solar disk for areas of increased activity. The system is designed with a rotating gear wheel, containing 30.4 nm, 28.4 nm, and 17.1 nm EUV filters, as well as a 97.86 µm diameter occulter. The wheel is aligned between a telescope and a CMOS camera to utilize one filter or the occulter at a time. Operationally, the EUV filters would utilize 1.5 second exposures, the coronagraph would utilize 5 second exposures, and the wheel would take 1 second to rotate between positions to minimize torque effects on the spacecraft. The SCORCH payload is proposed for use in a constellation of spacecraft in heliocentric orbits that will provide multiple data points for solar behavior