Monitoring Solar Energetic Particles during Large Solar Events using a Cube Satellite (CubeSat)

The KFUPM CubeSat mission is a 3U educational spacecraft designed to train undergraduate students to design and build a small spacecraft. The CubeSat will carry an X-ray detec...ctor to monitor solar energetic particle and solar wind emitted from the sun. The sensor will also observe energetic particles emitted during large solar events. The KFUPM CubeSat team is planning to collaborate with some regional and international universities including Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), Khalifa University (UAE), and the University of Portland, Oregon (USA). The CubeSat will be developed at the KFUPM under the supervision of Dr. Ashraf Farahat, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and a group of undergraduate students from electrical, aerospace, and computer engineering departments. Through this project and the general IRC-ASE funds the team will build facilities and equipment to perform the spacecraft design and development. It is important to note that with the current proposed budget the team will not be able to launch the satellite, but the team will try to explore other venues to launch the spacecraft.