First flight and design of AMPPS (Additively Manufactured Plastic Plasma Spectrometer)

This poster describes the design, testing, and sounding rocket flight of AMPPS (Additively Manufactured Plastic Plasma Spectrometer). AMPPS is a tophat-style spectrometer, and measures the energies of electrons from roughly 20eV to >10keV. The purpose of AMPPS was a technology demonstration for several new manufacturing and design concepts. The electrostatic analyzer was fully 3D printed, and it was built monolithically, meaning all the electrodes and insulators were printed together as one piece. Another innovation was a fully printed microchannel plate holder structure. This has proven very resilient and allows much simpler assembly of the thin, fragile microchannel plates. The soft and flexible nature of the plastic allows it to act as an integrated spring. Electrical connections and insulators were combined into the prints, dramatically simplifying and reducing the stress of assembly. AMPPS also included fully custom low-power electronics and software for high voltage power as well as data handling, with hardware-based fault protections.

AMPPS was a last-minute addition on the BADASS (Black and Diffuse Auroral Science Surveyor) rocket, taking the place of a counterweight deployable boom. AMPPS was originally designed to operate in the "tuna can" cylindrical volume of a CubeSat. Design tweaks, testing, and integration were done in October and November 2025. Additional preflight calibration was done at Southwest Research Institute in January 2026. Launch was Feb 9th 2026 from Poker Flat, and appears to have been a success. In flight, the electrostatic analyzer and microchannel plates operated at 1950 volts. There were no high voltage incidents or anomalies until about 80km on re-entry. Outgassing appears minimal.

Electron energy spectrograms from AMPPS show several interesting features, such as consistent monoenergetic lines, broadband features, and oscillations. The poster will include comparisons with other in-situ electron instruments on the rocket, and with allsky camera images. Due to a circuit design mistake and some last minute changes, no pitch angle information is available and the overall noise level is high and inconsistent. Modulation of count rate with the rocket's spin period is significant, but there are other oscillations at different periods as well, perhaps indicating pulsations of the aurora.

Students were involved in mechanical manufacturing, software, circuit design, testing, and data analysis. This includes undergraduates, graduate students, and a high school student. AMPPS was developed at University of Alaska Fairbanks with collaboration from NASA Goddard, Denali Scientific, and Southwest Research Institute. Development has been supported by NASA Heliophysics H-TIDeS, NASA Research Initiation Award, Alaska Space Grant Program, and Alaska NASA EPSCoR.