Design of a cubesat mission to investigate high-enthalpy noneqilibrium flow chemistry

High-enthalpy nonequilibrium flows are difficult to model accurately and are not reproducible in a laboratory setting with current technology. This study documents the design and development of a CubeSat-class orbital mission to perform in situ measurements of this important flow regime. The objectives of the mission are to better characterize high-enthalpy nonequilibrium flow chemistry present during atmospheric entry while verifying that off-the-shelf science-grade instruments are capable of performing such measurements at relatively low cost. The payload consists of optical spectrometers, pressure sensors, and a heat flux sensor. The payload will collect data on species composition and number as well as the general properties of the flow. Successful execution of this mission will provide a dataset that may be used to validate and improve current computational models of high-enthalpy nonequilibrium flows and validate a low-cost method for characterizing the flow field that may be reflown to assess other flight conditions.