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DARPA – Request for Information – Ouija Guest Investigator Opportunity for Ionospheric Discovery

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DARPA – Request for Information – Ouija Guest Investigator Opportunity for Ionospheric Discovery

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DARPA expects to launch the Ouija program satellite into very low Earth orbit mid-2025. Ouija will carry multiple scientific instruments that will quantify the high frequency (HF) noise environment in space, gather a first-ever dedicated dataset from inside the F2 layer to significantly improve the characterization of the bottom-side of the ionosphere, and validate accurate near real-time HF propagation predictions. The VLEO altitude regime (approximately 200 km – 300 km) is of particular interest due to its information-rich environment where ionospheric electron density is at a maximum.

DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office is considering a Guest Investigator (GI) program to broaden the basic research utility of the in situ datasets collected during the Ouija mission. Selected GIs would initiate research projects that supplement or enhance the Ouija science return with their unique methods, facilities, missions, or capabilities. This can include new research projects that do not require GI-specified data collections, theoretical investigations that will advance the scientific return on Ouija datasets, and/or investigate unique conditions sampled by Ouija such as coronal activity, day/night comparisons, South Atlantic Anomaly transit, etc.

DARPA does not plan a broad public release of the Ouija dataset.

Non-US respondents must show a collaboration with a US-based GI.

This RFI is intended to

  1. establish a community of interest,
  2. understand big scientific problems that may be uniquely addressed by access to VLEO/F2 layer Ouija data, and
  3. determine the potential for large leaps in the current state-of-the-art of scientific knowledge by access to and analysis of Ouija data.

Based on the scientific potential, and the breadth of the community of interest, DARPA may choose to release a funded GI opportunity in the future.

Responses to this RFI are due 28 February 2025 via email to DARPA-SN-25-15@darpa.mil.

 

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RFI – Ouija Guest Investigator Opportunity: DARPA-SN-25-15

 

 

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