Ultra-Compact THz Instruments for Space Exploration

In recent years, space agencies across the globe have been actively looking into ultra-compact instruments to fly on small satellite platforms to have multiple flight missions with innovative way of getting science data. These instruments are low power, mass, and volume and yet highly capable scientific payload. When flown on CubeSat/SmallSat platforms, they enable advancing proof of concept instruments to higher technology readiness level (TRL) by flying them in relevant environment and allow to have multiple targeted flights. Developing ultra-compact scientific payloads for these novel platforms poses a host of challenges. First, the instrument needs to be highly compact due to the lack of available space. Second, it has to be ultra-low-power due to the severe restrictions on DC power availability. And finally, one has to be innovative in the design of antennas as traditional high gain reflector antennas (for scientific payload as well as for data communication) are not practical. Design and development of large aperture deployable antennas and other innovative structures are gaining a lot of attention in this regard. In this presentation, we will present an overview of the state of the instrumentation development and the design and implementation challenges. Innovative packaging solutions, novel antenna technology, and low-power backend solutions will also be presented. We will show that CubeSats and SmallSats will play a key role in future scientific missions to space, and they will find increasing applications in commercial communication and other endeavors. The research described herein was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, under contract with National Aeronautics and Space Administration.