In June 2011, the OECD (Future Global Shocks) identified geomagnetic storms (of solar origin) as one of the 5 major potential risks for the coming years. Among other things, events related to solar activity can impact civil and military terrestrial satellites for telecommunications, navigation, and observation. Communications (HF/VHF/UHF), Electronic Intelligence (ELINT), GNSS navigation, radar detection, etc., can be disrupted. Currently, there is no meteorological service for the radiant environment of satellites with predictive capability in Europe. The starting point of such a service is to have available in-situ measurements to best understand the current state of radiation levels and ultimately predict their developments in the future. Furthermore, the arrival of EOR (Earth Orbit Rising) type telecommunications satellites on the market has highlighted new vulnerabilities to space radiation, previously underestimated (in terms of effects and dynamics).

The CREME project (Cubesat for Radiation Environment Monitoring Experiment) was submitted to the Occitanie region in the spring. Its purpose is to develop a payload composed of a moderately priced charged particle detector. It will be dedicated to both space weather and measuring the radiative environment constraining EOR missions, while ensuring quality measurements. Its small footprint will allow it to be validated through a flight on a 3U CubeSat. The envisaged detector is based on the principle of silicon diodes associated with an optimized shielding to discriminate against charged particles encountered in space environments (protons with energies above the MeV and electrons exceeding a few hundred keV). It should present low cost and a small footprint, and its design should allow for easy carrying for any type of platform (industrial or scientific).

The 3U platform, developed by ISAE-SUPAERO, is based on the expertise and feedback acquired during the EyeSat (CNES), Entrysat (ISAE-SUPAERO – ONERA), and NIMPH (ISAE-SUPAERO, TAS, CNRS/LAAS) projects. It will be derived from the platform currently under development (MONITA) for the NIMPH project. The design/implementation differential will remain limited, especially since the radiation monitor does not require precise attitude control. The risks are therefore low, and the feasibility of the platform has been validated.

Beyond the framework of the CREME project, it is intended that the in-flight measurements collected will be used at CSUT, thus enhancing the space domain among students. They will also help validate the concept of the detector in orbit and obtain new measurements capable of enriching space weather monitoring services.

One of the perspectives of such a project will be to offer space industry players a low-cost, compact, and highly versatile radiation monitor, allowing for easy integration onto commercial satellites. The underlying idea is to eventually have a sensor that can accommodate the measured species (protons or electrons) as well as the measured energy range (between 1 and 100 MeV for protons, 100 keV to 4 MeV for electrons). Thus, in the future, a constellation of such detectors would allow for the measurement of the space environment as a whole and for the characterization of orbits that have so far been poorly described from a radiative point of view.