Суборбитальные пуски (научные и экспериментальные)

[tnt22]

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-launches-x-ray-telescope-on-sounding-rocket-to-study-star-wreckage

July 23, 2018

NASA Launches X-ray Telescope on Sounding Rocket to Study Star Wreckage

Editor's note, July 23, 2018: The Micro-X team reports that while the detector functioned as expected during the flight, demonstrating the technology in space flight for the first time, the observatory's pointing system was unable to lock onto its target, Cassiopeia A. The team will be looking forward to its next opportunity for a reflight.

NASA launched a prototype telescope and instrument to observe the X-rays emitted by Cassiopeia A, the expanding debris of an exploded star. The High-Resolution Microcalorimeter X-ray Imaging Rocket (Micro-X) launched July 22 aboard a sub-orbital launch vehicle called a sounding rocket and successfully tested its detector technology.

Спойлер

This image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, reveals the location of silicon (red), sulfur (yellow), calcium (green) and iron (purple) in the debris. The Micro-X mission will map a wider range of elements so astronomers can better understand the explosion. Cassiopeia A lies about 11,000 light-years from Earth.
Credits: NASA/CXC/SAO

"The flight time of a sounding rocket is short compared to orbiting satellites, so you have to get as much light as you can to do the science you want," said Principal Investigator Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano, an associate professor of physics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. "There are only a couple of X-ray sources in the sky that are bright enough for the few minutes of observation time such flights give us, and Cassiopeia A is one of the brightest. Our study will build on the current knowledge of supernova remnants, how they exploded and evolve, and we will get new insights into the history of Cassiopeia A."

Launched from the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Micro-X soared to an altitude of 100 miles (160 kilometers) — required to detect X-rays that are absorbed by Earth's atmosphere — and observed the remnant for the next five minutes. At its pinnacle Micro-X reached an altitude of 167 miles (270 kilometers).

The mission incorporates the first array of transition-edge sensor X-ray microcalorimeters to fly into space. These sensors act as highly sensitive thermometers and make ideal detectors for an X-ray telescope.

The microcalorimeter is comprised of three main parts: an absorber which takes in light and converts it to heat, a thermistor that alters its own resistance due to changing temperature and a heat sink that cools the microcalorimeter back down.


Micro-X is shown during vibration testing at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, on June 11, 2018. Such tests verify the telescope can withstand the rigors of a rocket flight.
Credits: NASA/Berit Bland

For Micro-X, a refrigerator cools the detector to about 459 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (0.075 degree Celsius above absolute zero), or nearly the minimum temperature possible. When the instrument detects X-rays, the light's energy is converted into heat. This causes a slight rise in temperature, prompting the refrigerator to cool the detector back to its original temperature. The energy of each X-ray can be determined from the change in temperature.

One of the many questions that scientists are interested in using the data to answer is whether or not the temperatures of the gases ejected from the star's explosion are the same for iron and silicon, two elements which were previously measured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Such an analysis was not possible with Chandra's spectrometers.

"With Chandra, different regions of the supernova remnant overlap in the spectrometer," said F. Scott Porter, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is participating in the mission. "Micro-X is different because it can take every single photon in its field of view, tell the exact energy and make a spectrum."

The information collected by Micro-X will also be used to help answer the question of how much oxygen resides in Cassiopeia A, create a survey of the various other elements in the remnant and measure the speed of the ring-like ejecta from the exploded star.

One aspect of research that was not possible before Micro-X was the measurement of weak spectral lines. These observations will now tell scientists which gases are present as well as their speed and direction. This is possible because light from sources moving toward or away from us causes a shift in wavelength depending on their speed, a phenomenon known as the Doppler shift.

Both the mission of Micro-X and the utilization of transition-edge sensors will continue in the future. The Micro-X team plans to direct their attention to other cosmic objects. "In future flights we can look at other sources like other supernova remnants or clusters of galaxies," said Figueroa-Feliciano. "We have even thought about using this type of rocket to look for dark matter."

Transition-edge sensors will also be incorporated in upcoming orbital missions. ESA's (European Space Agency) Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA), planned for launch in the early 2030s, will wield an array of about 5,000 pixels, nearly 40 times the size of Micro-X's 128-pixel detector. ATHENA will study hot gas structures — such as groups of galaxies — and conduct a census of black holes.

In addition to NASA and Northwestern University, Micro-X is supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

NASA's Sounding Rocket Program is conducted at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, which is managed by Goddard. NASA's Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program for the agency. The development of the Micro-X payload was supported by NASA's Astrophysics Division.

By Abigail Major
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

[свернуть]

Last Updated: July 23, 2018
Editor: Rob Garner

[tnt22]

АНОНС

RockSat-X

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

NOTMAR (local)

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/2018/feature/rocksat-x-student-experiments-launching-aug-14-from-nasa-wallops

Aug. 13, 2018

RockSat-X Student Experiments Launching Aug. 14 from NASA Wallops

After toiling all hours of the day, including weekends, on experiments and technology demonstration projects, university and community college students from across the country will see the results of their hard work fly to space on a NASA suborbital sounding rocket Aug.14, 2018, from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The launch of the 44-foot tall two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute rocket is scheduled between 5:45 and 10 a.m. EDT. The backup launch dates are August 15 - 17.

After flying to around 91 miles altitude, the payload, with the experiments, will descend by parachute and is expected to land 15 minutes after launch in the Atlantic Ocean, about 64 miles off the Virginia coast. The experiments and any stored data will be provided to the students later in the day following sea recovery of the payload.

The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will open at 5 a.m. on launch day for viewing the flight. The rocket launch is expected to be only seen from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland.

Live coverage of the mission is set to begin at 5:15 a.m. on the Wallops Ustream site. Launch updates also are available via the Wallops Facebook and Twitter sites. Facebook Live coverage begins at 5:30 a.m.

Спойлер

RockSat-X student teams and Wallops sounding rocket personnel pose with the payload on the spin/balance machine.
Credits: NASA/Berit Bland

The experiments are flying through the RockSat-X program in conjunction with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. RockSat-X is the most advanced of NASA's three-phase sounding rocket program for students. The RockOn launches are at the entry level, then progress to the intermedia level RockSat-C missions and then RockSat-X.

Participating institutions in this flight are the University of Colorado, Boulder; the University of Puerto Rico; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg; University of Kentucky, Lexington; Capitol Technology University, Laurel, Maryland; University of Maryland, College Park; Temple University, Philadelphia; .

Also, the West Virginia Space Flight Design Challenge is a collaboration between The Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, and four colleges in West Virginia --.West Virginia University, Morgantown; Marshall University, Huntington; West Virginia State University, Institute; West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon; and NASA's IV & V Facility in Fairmont.

Giovanni Rosanova, chief of the Sounding Rocket Program Office at Wallops, said, "We are looking forward to the eighth flight of a RockSat-X payload on a NASA sounding rocket. Participating students are able to apply what they learn in the classroom into a hands-on project. To be a part of this process is rewarding to everyone involved in RockSat-X at Wallops."

RockSat-X is part of a three-tier program that introduces secondary institution students to building experiments for space flight and requires them to expand their skills to develop and build projects that are more complex as students progress through the programs. RockSat-X experiments fly approximately 20 miles higher in altitude than those in the RockOn and RockSat-C programs, providing more flight time in space.

"It's amazing to see students progress through RockOn and RockSat process. They are able to increase their skill levels, skills that industry and government organizations seek," said Chris Koehler, director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.

The agency's Wallops Flight Facility, which is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, conducts NASA's Sounding Rocket Program. NASA's Heliophysics Division manages the sounding-rocket program for the agency.

[свернуть]

Keith Koehler
NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia
keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov

The experiments on this RockSat-X flight are:

Спойлер

Community Colleges of Colorado

The Orbital Scrap Capture and Reclamation (OSCAR) project is a collaboration between three community colleges in Colorado -- Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Community College of Aurora, and Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood. The purpose of this experiment is to develop a cost effective method to alter the trajectory of space debris in suborbital flight. The payload creates an electrostatic field to attract small pieces of aluminum debris by charging a deployable rod with rabbit fur. The team hopes to use what they learn during this flight to better validate a potential method for deorbiting space debris in the future – a problem that is currently being investigated by a number of different institutions.

Capitol Technology University

The goal of Project Janus is to demonstrate the use of a laser distancing system to measure the speed of CubeSats within constellation during flight. This project simulates a satellite powered by its own battery system activated by Wallops. The payload uses two laser range finders to measure the distance and speed of a small CubeSat that moves along a track. It also uses the Iridium network to communicate and downlink data. CTU is also collaborating with a school for students with learning disabilities who are flying their own, independent experiment (U2-Pi Imager). The U2-Pi project aims to take images of the Earth's surface to assess land coverage.

Temple University

Temple University's mission is to detect flux and angular distribution of cosmic radiation as a function of altitude. This project is part of TU's senior design class and aims to expand upon previous research on radiation at lower altitudes. The payload uses scintillation coupled silicon photomultipliers to detect muon and high energy particles at various altitudes during the flight of the sounding rocket. They hope to be able to detect these muons and cosmic rays and collect data on them to be able to determine their direction of travel.

University of Colorado Boulder

The purpose of the Measuring Emitting Ground stations using Antennas Listening for Oscillating Doppler Outputs from NEXRAD (MEGALODON) experiment is to use passive RF technology to characterize the local NexRad Doppler Radar network. RF signals tend to degrade as they travel through the Earth's atmosphere and understanding these losses is crucial in the formation of a link budget. The team is developing a theoretical Matlab model to determine the projected nominal path loss due to altitude, radar pointing and scanning modes, and other environmental factors. The data collected during flight will be compared to the model to characterize other losses such as factors such as free space path loss and radar pointing.

University of Maryland

This payload includes two different experiments from the University of Maryland. The Stratification and Tribocharging Analysis of Regolith (STAR) experiment will study the effects of tribocharging on extra-terrestrial regolith simulant. It utilizes RaspberryPi imagers to capture pictures of regolith simulant as it charges in a space environment. The Space Characterization and Assessment of Manipulator Performance (SCAMP) project will fly a functional robotic manipulator component in a microgravity environment to test contact stability on both hard and soft contacts. This experiment will rotate a bar with a changing moment of inertia in order to provide contact stability data for a satellite servicing robot experiment currently in progress at UMd.

University of Puerto Rico

The University of Puerto Rico's mission is to collect micrometeorites in the Meteor Trail at altitudes of 49 – 68 miles (80-110 km) in order to gather organic molecules for complete DNA, RNA, and Nucleic Acids. The payload uses polyimide aerogels to collect samples of micrometeorites and organic molecules and includes a MinION real-time DNA and RNA sequencer. The payload also uses a number of different cross contamination mitigation strategies prior to and during launch including thorough cleaning of the payload and surrounding rocket skin and releasing oxygen plasma at apogee.

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech's mission is to support STEM education and outreach by utilizing the ThinSat platform that allows high school and university students to test their own experiment in a space environment. The payload deploys three ThinSats – two of which have been built by local high school students from Blacksburg High School – that collect data on UV radiation, stabilization using a reaction wheel, ionizing radiation (using a Geiger counter), and RF transmission. The payload also deploys an antenna to allow the ThinSats to transmit their data back to the main payload on the rocket.

West Virginia Collaboration

The Hobart and William Smith Colleges are attempting to measure the temperature and vibration of their payload throughout the rocket's flight. Marshall University's experiment uses an automated target acquisition system to take pictures of target stars and assess the effectiveness of astronomy.net for target acquisition during flight. West Virginia State University is preparing for future CubeSat missions by comparing different equipment designs and testing the feasibility of a Michelson Interferometer. West Virginia University is evaluating the capabilities of a jettisoned capsule to project individual experiments in future missions and design an ultra-compact plasma spectrometer with reduced mass, volume, and high voltage requirements and comparing it to identical instruments. West Virginia Wesleyan College's experiment is to compare the effectiveness of a thermionic converter to a solar panel in space and to prove NOAA magnetometer data

[свернуть]

Last Updated: Aug. 13, 2018
Editor: Patrick Black

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

NASA Wallops‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA_Wallops 3 ч. назад

At 5:45 a.m. tomorrow, a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket is scheduled to launch the RockSat-X mission. After 2nd stage burnout, the student experiments will be traveling up to 3,731 miles per hour, eventually reaching up to 91 miles in altitude. https://go.nasa.gov/2P5xsUC 

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

Дикари в опасной зоне! И никакие NOTMAR им не указ  

NASA Wallops‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA_Wallops 7 мин. назад

The countdown clock for the RockSat-X mission will hold at T-15 to monitor a boat in the hazard area.

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

[tnt22]

NASA Wallops‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA_Wallops 3 мин. назад

The countdown has continued at 15 minutes and will hold again with 5 minutes remaining.

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

Пуск

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

[tnt22]

RockSat-X 

Разделение 1-й и 2-й ступеней ракеты

[tnt22]

RockSat-X 

2-й ступень. Зажигание

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

[tnt22]

NASA Wallops‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA_Wallops 22 мин. назад

Liftoff! The RockSat-X mission carrying student payloads successfully lifted off from Wallops Island, Virginia.

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

Запись пуска на Мордокниге (NASAWFF)

https://scontent-arn2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t42.1790-29/10000000_250885522415913_8041477030761463808_n.mp4?_nc_cat=0&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InNkIn0%3D&oh=01356011b5987b19a60abc9c852bd5af&oe=5B72D89B (8:31)

[tnt22]

RockSat-X 

Запись пуска на UStream

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/116564922

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

NASA Wallops‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA_Wallops 38 сек. назад

A sounding rocket successfully launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, at 6:13 a.m. EDT, carrying experiments and technology demonstration projects designed by university and community college students in the RockSat-X program. : NASA/Allison Stancil

[tnt22]

RockSat-X

https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/2018/feature/student-experiments-soar-with-early-morning-launch-from-wallops

Aug. 14, 2018

Student Experiments Soar with Early Morning Launch fr om Wallops


Credits: NASA/Chris Perry

Approximately 100 undergraduate university and community college students from across the United States were on hand to witness the launch of their experiments and technology demonstration projects on a NASA suborbital rocket at 6:13 a.m., Aug. 14, from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

The Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket launched as the sun was rising over the horizon and carried the student projects to an altitude of 98.5 miles.

After a brief ride into space, the payload carrying the students' projects descended by parachute and landed in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 64 miles from the launch site. After recovery, the experiments will be returned to the students later in the day.

Спойлер

The eight experiments developed by students from across the country flew through the RockSat-X program in conjunction with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. RockSat-X is the most advanced of NASA's three-phase sounding rocket program for students. The RockOn launches are at the entry level, then progress to the intermedia level RockSat-C missions and then RockSat-X.

Also joining the RockSat-X students for the launch were about 50 students participating in the RockSat-XN program who are at Wallops preparing their experiment projects for flight. Similar to RockSat-X, XN includes experiments developed by students in the United States and those from universities in Norway and Japan.

XN is launching in January 2019 from the Andoya Space Center in Norway as part of an international project called the Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) – Cusp.

In the GCI, NASA and United States scientists will join those from Norway, Japan, Canada and other countries during the next two years to investigate the region called the geomagnetic cusp — one of the few places on Earth with easy access to the electrically charged solar wind that pervades the solar system. The coordinated studies of near-Earth space at the Polar Regions will help understand the fundamental processes of our neighborhood in space; such knowledge is needed for safe navigation and communication near the poles, wh ere solar activity can disrupt radio signals.


Credits: NASA/Patrick Black

Keith Koehler
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility

[свернуть]

Last Updated: Aug. 14, 2018
Editor: Patrick Black