The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment Mission Overview

FRANCE, KEVIN; FLEMING, BRIAN; EGAN, ARIKA; DESERT, JEAN-MICHEL; FOSSATI, LUCA; KOSKINEN, TOMMI T.; NELL, NICHOLAS; PETIT, PASCAL; VIDOTTO, ALINE A.; BEASLEY, MATTHEW; DECICCO, NICHOLAS; SREEJITH, AICKARA GOPINATHAN; SURESH, AMBILY; BAUMERT, JARED; CAULEY, P. WILSON; VILLARREAL D'ANGELO, CAROLINA; HOADLEY, KERI; KANE, ROBERT; KOHNERT, RICHARD; LAMBERT, JULIAN; ULRICH, STEFAN

ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Año: 2023 vol. 165

0004-6256

Atmospheric escape is a fundamental process that affects the structure, composition, and evolution of many planets. The signatures of escape are detectable on close-in, gaseous exoplanets orbiting bright stars, owing to the high levels of extreme-ultraviolet irradiation from their parent stars. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a CubeSat mission designed to take advantage of the near-ultraviolet stellar brightness distribution to conduct a survey of the extended atmospheres of nearby close-in planets. The CUTE payload is a magnifying near-ultraviolet (2479-3306 Å) spectrograph fed by a rectangular Cassegrain telescope (206 mm × 84 mm); the spectrogram is recorded on a back-illuminated, UV-enhanced CCD. The science payload is integrated into a 6U Blue Canyon Technology XB1 bus. CUTE was launched into a polar, low-Earth orbit on 2021 September 27 and has been conducting this transit spectroscopy survey following an on-orbit commissioning period. This paper presents the mission motivation, development path, and demonstrates the potential for small satellites to conduct this type of science by presenting initial on-orbit science observations. The primary science mission is being conducted in 2022-2023, with a publicly available data archive coming online in 2023.