Slides:

RainCube_IEEE_MTTS_Chapter_4-21-2020

Abstract

RainCube is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-Band precipitation radar technologies in a low-cost, quick turnaround platform. It is funded by NASA Science Mission Directorate’s (SMD) Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) as part of the InVEST-2015 (In-space Validation of Earth Science Technologies) program. RainCube is the first radar and active payload in a 6U CubeSat. The radar payload and deployable Ka-Band mesh antenna were developed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL partnered with Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems as their spacecraft bus vendor.

RainCube was launched to ISS as part of ELaNa23 resupply mission on May 21, 2018 and was deployed in Low Earth Orbit from ISS on July 13, 2018. In fall of 2018, within the first two months of mission operations, RainCube achieved mission success by demonstrating its novel miniaturized radar architecture and deployable Ka-band

antenna in space environment. The mission has since been extended multiple times.

This presentation gives an overview of ESTO and the InVEST program, followed by details of RainCube mission from concept through mission success and continued operations. I will present key science results and lessons learned from two years of operations and also give a brief summary of upcoming opportunities that are enabled by the demonstrated success of RainCube.

About the Speaker

Shivani joined NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Radar Science and Engineering section in 2015. She is an Electrical Engineer in Radar Digital Systems group. RainCube was her first JPL mission. After working on the RainCube digital subsystem during development, Shivani has been serving as RainCube’s mission operationsmanager since launch. Prior to joining JPL, Shivani worked at Siemens Rail Automation for 4 years after graduating from USC with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering. Her Bachelor’s degree is in Electronics Engineering from Gujarat University in India. Other than RainCube, Shivani is part of the digital firmware team on Europa Clipper mission’s REASON radar and a co-investigator on CloudCube IIP that has been selected as part of ROSES-2020 solicitation.