The Solar irradiance and Earth Radiation Budget (SERB) mission is an innovative proof-of-concept nano-satellite, with three ambitious scientific objectives. The nano-satellite aims at measuring on the same platform the absolute value of the total solar irradiance (TSI) and its variability, the ultraviolet (UV) solar spectral variability, and the different components of the Earth radiation budget. SERB is a joint project between CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), Ecole polytechnique, and LATMOS (Laboratoire Atmospheres, Milieux, Observations Spatiales) scheduled for a launch in 2020–2021. It is a three-unit CubeSat (X-CubeSat II), developed by students from ´Ecole polytechnique. Critical components of instrumental payloads of future large missions (coatings, UV filters, etc.) can acquire the technical maturity by flying in a CubeSat. Nano-satellites also represent an excellent alternative for instrumentation testing, allowing for longer flights than rockets. More-over, specific scientific experiments can be performed by nano-satellites. This paper is intended to present the SERB mission and its scientific objectives.

Date Published: 13 May 2016
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 9838, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications IX, 98380T (13 May 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2222660

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9838:
Sensors and Systems for Space Applications IX
Khanh D. Pham; Genshe Chen, Editor(s)