CUVE: CubeSat UV Experiment
PI:
Valeria Cottini, University of Maryland, NASA/GSFC Planetary Systems Laboratory
Co-Is (alphabetical):
S. Aslam, N. Gorius, T. Hewagama, G. Piccioni
CUVE is a 12U high-altitude orbiter in a polar orbit around Venus. It is a targeted mission, with a dedicated science payload and a compact spacecraft bus capable of interplanetary flight independently or as a ride-share with another mission to Venus or to a different target.
CUVE Payload includes:
- 190-380 nm high resolution spectrometer
- 320-520 nm contextual imaging spectrometer
CUVE Science Objectives are: insights on the nature of the "Unknown" UV-absorber; the abundances and distributions of SO2 and SO at and above Venus's cloud tops and correlation with the UV absorber; atmospheric dynamics at the cloud tops; and structure of upper clouds and wind measurements from cloud-tracking and nightglow emissions: NO, CO, O2.
