Old and New – Solar Coronal CubeSat Missions at LASP

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is the only academic institution with a 100% mission success return on their CubeSats. Science missions directed at studying the solar corona have been a large majority of these missions. MinXSS-1 was NASA’s first solar science CubeSat mission and had an overwhelming science impact, leading to the “more bang for your buck” mentality for small satellite missions. Since then, much effort has been put into development of not only the science instruments intended for CubeSats, but on the CubeSat bus itself. Presently, a large majority of subsystems are built in house for LASP missions and LASP is contracted out to provide science instruments and support for other CubeSat missions across the world. The next generation DAXSS instrument carried onboard INSPIRESAT-1 is still currently on orbit and has provided solar soft X-ray spectra with much improved spectral resolution and extended energy range than its predecessors. The CSIE instruments are CMOS detectors being developed now for SunCET and CubIXSS and are next on the pad for LASP solar instruments and will help uncover more about the Sun than ever before.