Spacecraft Instruments

The Applied Physics Laboratory will build and operate the twin RBSP spacecraft for NASA’s Living With a Star program.

The RBSP spacecraft will operate entirely within the radiation belts throughout their mission. When intense space weather occurs and the density and energy of particles within the belts increases, the probes will not have the luxury of going into a safe mode, as many other spacecraft must do during storms. The spacecraft engineers must therefore design probes and instruments that are “hardened” to continue working even in the harshest conditions.

The probes will carry a number of instruments and instrument suites to support five experiments that will address the mission's science objectives. Because it is vital that the two craft make identical measurements to observe changes in the radiation belts through both space and time, each probe will carry the following:

• Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite (ECT)
  Principal Investigator: H. Spence, Boston University
  
  
• Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS)
  Principal Investigator: C. Kletzing, University of Iowa, Iowa City
  
  
• Electric Field and Waves Suite (EFW)
  Principal Investigator: J. Wygant, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
  
  
• Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE)
  Principal Investigator: L. Lanzerotti, New Jersey Institute of Technology
  
  
• Relativistic Proton Spectrometer (RPS)
  Principal Investigator: National Reconnaissance Office

Click on each image below to enlarge.