Design of Miniaturized Time-of-Flight Reflectron Mass Spectrometer for Upper Atmosphere Density Measurements

Upper atmosphere and solar events can have strong impacts on the communication, power, and navigation systems we use every day. Modeling atmospheric dynamics, or the changes and reactions of different regions of the atmosphere, can help improve understanding and predictions of the effects of solar events. A suite of measurements of the upper atmosphere, including wind, temperature, and composition measurements, is used to build atmospheric models. Current atmospheric models are very sophisticated but need additional data to fully model atmospheric dynamics. In the past, measurements used to determine atmospheric composition have been performed using mass spectrometer instruments on full-size satellites. Traditional satellites are substantial in size and can be expensive to build and launch. Mass spectrometer measurements taken from a much smaller satellite could be flown closer together and would be less expensive to build and launch. This miniature mass spectrometer project aims to design technology that would enable high-quality mass spectrometer measurements to be taken from a small satellite. The project downsizes some published techniques to improve measurement quality and develops some new technologies for mass spectrometers