Seminar: Observing X-ray signatures of space weather and radiation with low-cost space missions - Oct. 16
Bob Marshall
Associate Professor, Smead Aerospace
Friday, Oct. 16 | 10:40 A.M. | AERO 111
Abstract: My research group has taken three CubeSat missions from proposal to orbit over the past six years. Initiated in the uncertain months of early 2020, AEPEX (NASA Heliophysics), CANVAS (NSF Space Weather), and COSMO (NGA MagQuest) have gone through mission, spacecraft, and instrument development in parallel, and then all three launched within nine days of each other in early 2026. These three missions capture the range of my research program: fundamental space physics, instrument and mission development, applied remote sensing, and everything in between.
In this talk, I'll use these three missions to trace the trajectory of my research group over the past six years, then look ahead to future directions. This talk will focus on AEPEX, the first mission to image energetic electron precipitation using the faint X-rays produced when electrons crash into our atmosphere from above. These X-ray signatures of electron precipitation provide a unique metric for radiation belt activity, and have important impacts on global atmospheric circulation.Ìý
I'll discuss the design of the X-ray imaging instrument, its integration into our own 6U CubeSat design, and the path from integration to launch and operations. The AEPEX mission ties directly into numerical simulation and data analysis work in my group aimed at better understanding the many signatures of radiation interactions with atmospheres, which are ubiquitous in magnetized planets with atmospheres. Monte Carlo simulations using the GEANT4 package from CERN let us turn X-ray counts into estimates of the electron spectra depositing energy in the atmosphere. I'll also touch briefly on CANVAS and COSMO, which similarly use unique instruments developed in our lab along with in-house bespoke spacecraft designs. These missions together prove that the small-satellite approach scales from educational missions to novel science and operational, agency-funded systems.
Looking forward, I will introduce two new X-ray imaging missions now in development (IMPAX and RADICALS) that extend AEPEX's approach to new orbits and energy ranges, along with new studies of radiation impacts at Mars and Jupiter. These past and future projects show how energetic particle precipitation reshapes atmospheric chemistry, radiation exposure, and our models of the radiation belts themselves.Ìý
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