ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Space Physics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1654754
Laboratory for the Behavior of the Slot Region, a small mission doing big radiation science
Provisionally accepted
- 1Montana State University, Bozeman, United States
- 2The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Iowa City, United States
- 3The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, United States
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This paper outlines the science and basic design choices associated with a mission concept study known as LOBSTR (Laboratory for the Behavior of the SloT Region). This mission concept focuses on energetic particles, both electrons and protons, as they impinge upon the slot region in the Van Allen Radiation Belts around Earth. This mission concept focuses on the slot region, particularly the drift dynamics of the particles that were not captured by Van Allen Probes. The concept uses two SmallSats in a near-equatorial orbit, with precise orbit timing to capture the desired dynamics. The total radiation dose and details of the oribital dynamics are examined and found to be within the capabilities of current technology.
Keywords: Mission concept, Radiation belt, Drift, Radiation, energetic particles
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Filwett, Miles, Jaynes and Gabrielse. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rachael Filwett, Montana State University, Bozeman, United States
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