Суборбитальные пуски (научные и экспериментальные)

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SubTec-8

NASA Wallops‏  @NASA_Wallops 10 ч. назад

NASA successfully launched the SubTec-8 mission on a sounding rocket at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 24.

SubTec-8 is a tech demo designed to test new capabilities for future science missions aboard suborbital and orbital rockets. https://go.nasa.gov/2WavwOJ
: NASA/Chris Perry

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https://www.nasa.gov/wallops/2019/feature/nasa-technology-gets-night-time-flight-test-at-wallops

Oct. 25, 2019

NASA Technology Gets Night-time Flight Test at Wallops

Several technologies to improve the capability of conducting suborbital science missions received a test flight with the successful launch of a NASA sounding rocket October 24, 2019, from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The Terrier-Improved Malemute launched at 8 p.m. EDT into clear night skies and flew to an altitude 130 miles. After descending by parachute, the Suborbital Technology experiment Carrier-8 or SubTec-8 payload splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered. This was the first night-time recovery of sounding rocket payload launched from Wallops.


Credits: NASA / Kyle Hoppes

Technologies tested on the mission included distributed payload communications that will allow multipoint measurements for scientists to study multiple regions in space simultaneously; a low cost star tracker for assisting in pointing the rocket when taking astronomical observations; and a high data rate encoder that will provide the ability to transmit data from the rocket to the ground four times faster than currently available; and an autonomous flight termination unit to develop capabilities, procedures, and tools needed to certify and process an autonomous process as the primary safety system for future launches from Wallops.

Cathy Hesh, technology manager for the sounding rocket program office at Wallops, said "The mission went well, with most experiments reporting a successful test. The distributed payload communications springs experiment worked well, the flight termination unit had an excellent test and the Wallops low cost star tracker reported an excellent test. The distributed payload communications rockets will need further investigation, but we did receive data for a short period of time, though much shorter than anticipated."

Distributed payload communications is being developed to increase the capabilities of suborbital science investigations in near-Earth space.

Kristina Lynch, from Dartmouth College and a scientist who conducts research using sounding rockets said, "I am very interested in multipoint, distributed, in situ measurements in order to learn more about the system science of the auroral ionosphere. Bringing the distributed payload communications capability into the low cost access to space portfolio is a very good step for the rocket program, as there are a great many distributed-system studies that this will enable."

NASA's Sounding Rockets Program is managed at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility, which is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA's Heliophysics Division funds the Sounding Rockets Program for the agency.

By Keith Koehler
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia

Last Updated: Oct. 25, 2019
Editor: Patrick Black

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FORTIS

 NASA Wallops‏ @NASA_Wallops 14 мин. назад

Next up: NASA Wallops is launching the FORTIS mission on a sounding rocket fr om White Sands, NM, on Oct. 27.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-to-demonstrate-new-star-watching-technology-with-thousands-of-tiny-shutters

Oct. 22, 2019

NASA to Demonstrate New Star-Watching Technology with Thousands of Tiny Shutters

NASA scientists plan to demonstrate a revolutionary technology for studying hundreds of stars and galaxies at the same time — a new capability originally created for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

The technology, called the Next-Generation Microshutter Array (NGMSA), will fly for the first time on the Far-ultraviolet Off Rowland-circle Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy, or FORTIS, mission on October 27. The array includes 8,125 tiny shutters, each about the width of a human hair, that open and close as needed to focus on specific celestial objects.

Led by Johns Hopkins University Professor Stephan McCandliss, FORTIS will launch aboard a Black Brant IX sounding rocket from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to study the star-forming galaxy, Messier 33, or M33. Located about 3 million light-years from Earth in the Triangulum constellation, M33 is the third largest member of the Local Group of galaxies that includes our own Milky Way and Andromeda.

"FORTIS needed our new microshutter technology for science. We benefit from a test platform to advance the readiness of this design for use in space. It's a great synergy," said Matt Greenhouse, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Greenhouse and his colleague, Goddard technologist Mary Li, are advancing the technology with support from NASA's Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) program.

The sounding rocket mission is expected to address a wide range of risks associated with operating this new technology. It will also help lay the foundation for even larger arrays that future astrophysics missions will need.


The Goddard-developed microshutter array technology has evolved since its initial development in the 1990s for the James Webb Space Telescope. Here are images of its various incarnations. A Next-Generation Microshutter Array will fly in space for the first time on October 27, 2019.
Credits: NASA

Divining Structures Surrounding Emerging Hot Star Clusters

M33 is a spiral-disk galaxy littered with clusters of massive hot stars that have emerged within the past few million years from collapsing natal clouds of cold gas and dust. To study these bright clusters, which emit copious amounts of light at ultraviolet wavelengths, the FORTIS telescope will first locate the brightest clusters with its imager and an on-the-fly targeting algorithm will close all the tiny shutters except those coincident with the bright targets.

This will allow light to flow to the spectrograph wh ere it will be broken into component wavelengths to reveal details about the physical conditions of the clusters and their surrounding material.

The microshutter technology gives scientists the ability to produce multiple spectra at once. This capability improves productivity on both sounding rocket missions, which offer only six minutes of observing time, or large space-based observatories, which can take up to a week to observe faint, far-away objects and gather enough light to obtain good spectra. With observing time at a premium, the ability to gather light from multiple objects at once is paramount.

Webb, scheduled to launch in 2021, will carry NASA's first-generation microshutter technology — four 365-by-172 microshutter arrays that together total 250,000 shutters. They will allow Webb to obtain spectra of hundreds of objects simultaneously.  

What distinguishes the next-generation array on FORTIS from the one flying on Webb is how the shutters are opened and closed. Webb's arrays employ a large magnet that sweeps over the shutters to activate them. However, as with all mechanical parts, the magnet takes up space and adds weight. Furthermore, magnetically activated arrays can't be easily scaled up in size. As a result, this older technology is at a disadvantage for supporting future space telescopes larger than Webb.

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Magnet Eliminated

To accommodate future missions, Goddard's microshutter-development team eliminated the magnet. The shutters in the pilot 128-by-64 array that will fly on FORTIS open and close through electrostatic interactions. By applying an alternating-current voltage to electrodes placed on the frontside of the microshutters, the shutters swing open. To latch the desired shutters, a direct current voltage is applied to electrodes on the backside.

Without a magnet, the next-generation array can be dramatically scaled up in size — and that's precisely what the team is attempting to accomplish. Particularly, Greenhouse and Li are using advanced manufacturing techniques to create a much larger, 840-by-420 array equipped with 352,800 microshutters, dramatically increasing an instrument's field of view.

"The array that is flying on FORTIS is a technology development prototype for the big one," Greenhouse said.

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Other Sciences Could Benefit

Next-generation astrophysics missions aren't the only potential beneficiary of the magnet-free array. Heliophysicist Sarah Jones is considering implementing the FORTIS-type array on a sounding rocket mission called Loss Through Auroral Microburst Precipitation, or LAMP. LAMP will for the first time directly measure microbursts in pulsating aurorae, colorful light shows that occur 60 miles above Earth in a ring around the magnetic poles.

The technology could also greatly assist scientists' efforts to better understand the Sun's influence on Earth. By opening one shutter at a time, Jones said she could measure particle velocity in Earth's upper atmosphere and determine in which direction upper atmospheric winds are blowing. Scientists are interested in obtaining these measurements because these winds can create an atmospheric drag on low-Earth-orbiting satellites.

"We want to use this technology as soon as we can and are excited to use it," Jones said. "We haven't measured these winds directly in 30 years."

Jones's enthusiasm is understandable, Greenhouse said. "Everyone wants this technology," he said.

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By Lori Keesey
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Last Updated: Oct. 24, 2019
Editor: Lynn Jenner

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SARGE

 EXOS‏ @exosaerosystech 3 ч. назад

Weather looks great and we are good for launch! Launch window opens at 10 AM MT - so be sure to tune into the livestream to catch the action!

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SARGE

Предварительно, пуск - около 20:00 ДМВ

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SARGE

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SARGE

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SARGE

 EXOS‏ @exosaerosystech 2 мин. назад

SARGE is vertical!

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SARGE

Пуск "уехал" примерно на 40 мин, ~20:40 ДМВ

Upd.

 Thomas Burghardt‏ @TGMetsFan98 11 мин. назад

Liftoff of @exosaerosystech #SARGE Flight 4 is now targeted for NET 1:40 PM EDT (17:40 UTC).

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SARGE

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SARGE

Пуск!!!

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SARGE

Ушла нормально

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SARGE

А дальше ракету о5 завертело

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SARGE

Похоже, авария

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SARGE

Н-да, а парашют-то не вышел....  



И финальный шмяк

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SARGE

 Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 19 мин. назад

Doesn't look good.

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SARGE

Запись трансляции пуска (EXOS)

EXOS SARGE Launch 4

 EXOS Aerospace

Трансляция началась 5 часов назад

https://www.youtube.com/embed/78osEuHIFBI (2:34:42)

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https://spacenews.com/exos-aerospace-suborbital-launch-fails/

Exos Aerospace suborbital launch fails
by Jeff Foust — October 26, 2019


A dust cloud rises from the impact site of Exos Aerospace's SARGE rocket, which crashed minutes after liftoff Oct. 26 from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Credit: Exos Aerospace webcast

WASHINGTON — A reusable suborbital sounding rocket launched by Exos Aerospace malfunctioned shortly after liftoff Oct. 26, causing the vehicle to crash back to Earth minutes later.

The Suborbital Autonomous Rocket with GuidancE, or SARGE, sounding rocket lifted off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at approximately 1:40 p.m. Eastern. The rocket cleared its launch pad smoothly, but seconds later appeared to suffer a loss of attitude control and wobble.

The rocket is designed to deploy parachutes to guide it back to a landing near the launch site. Instead, several pieces of debris were visible falling back to the ground, and the rocket body crashed near the launch pad nearly three and a half minutes after liftoff.

The rocket reached a peak altitude of about 12,600 meters, according to telemetry displayed on the webcast, far short of the planned altitude of at least 80 kilometers.

John Quinn, chief operating officer of Exos, gave few details about the potential cause of the failure at the end of a webcast of the flight. "This is rocket science. We'll fix it and we will be going again," he said.

The launch was the fourth for SARGE, a vehicle designed for dozens of flights to the edge of space. This launch carried a number of research payloads from organizations ranging from the Mayo Clinic to Purdue University, seeking to take advantage of the roughly 90 seconds of "good-quality microgravity" Quinn said a nominal flight would have provided.

Exos has experienced problems with the guidance system on SARGE in past flights. During the previous SARGE launch June 29, also from Spaceport America, the rocket started gyrating shortly after liftoff. However, the recovery systems worked as expected and the rocket was safely recovered.

Quinn said prior to this webcast that Exos replaced a faulty inertial measurement unit after the June launch. Testing completed just two days ago confirmed that the updated system was working as expected in simulations.

Exos had hoped to fly this vehicle to at least 80 kilometers in order to qualify for a NASA contract under the Flight Opportunities program, which arranges suborbital flights for research payloads. The company had also planned to use the same SARGE vehicle for back-to-back test flights, 48 hours apart, in early 2020. Quinn said the company expected to start construction of four or five new SARGE rockets next year.

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FORTIS

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/stars-pollute-but-galaxies-recycle

Oct. 25, 2019

Stars Pollute, but Galaxies Recycle

Galaxies were once thought of as lonely islands in the universe: clumps of matter floating through otherwise empty space. We now know they are surrounded by a much larger, yet nearly invisible cloud of dust and gas. Astronomers call it the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. The CGM acts as a giant recycling plant, absorbing matter ejected by the galaxy and later pushing it right back in.

NASA's Far-ultraviolet Off Rowland-circle Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy, or FORTIS, mission will study this recycling process to help settle several unsolved mysteries. Launching on a sounding rocket fr om the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, FORTIS will observe a nearby galaxy to measure the gases its stars and supernova pump into the surrounding CGM. These observations will shed light on how material circulates in and out of galaxies, fueling star formation and galactic evolution. FORTIS's launch window opens on Oct. 27.

A case of missing matter

Astronomers who study the life cycle of galaxies have struggled with two major mysteries.

First, to build new stars, galaxies need fuel — gases like hydrogen, helium, and sometimes heavier elements. But many galaxies continue making stars long after astronomers predict their fuel should have been exhausted. Wh ere was the extra gas coming from?

Second, the byproducts of existing stars seemed to be missing. "As stars age, they pollute their surroundings," said Stephan McCandliss, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University and principal investigator for FORTIS. "They take in material around them and blow it right out."

But scientists found that star-filled galaxies weren't as polluted with metals — the heavy elements forged as stars burn — as they should have been. Metal-enriched gas was both entering and exiting galaxies, but no one knew how.

The galactical recycling center

Astronomers knew about the existence of CGMs, but most were too dim and spread out to be studied in detail. Then, in 2009, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph was added to the Hubble Space Telescope. The study of the CGM was now open for business.

Two years after the addition, a survey of the CGMs of 42 galaxies revealed they were full of gaseous metals. It was the stock of metals, missing from the galaxy, that astronomers had been looking for.

These metal-enriched gases weren't just sitting there, either. Instead, the CGM passes them back and forth with the galaxy as part of a continuous recycling process.

"The CGM is critically important to understanding galaxy evolution, since it is the repository for much of the star formation fuel," said Scott Porter, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Gravity, pulling gases from the CGM towards the galactic center, injects galaxies with fresh fuel for making stars. At the same time, stellar winds and supernova shoot metals back into the CGM, replenishing the supply.


Animation of a gigantic star exploding in a "core collapse" supernova. Supernovae are one way that galaxies eject metal-enriched gases into the circumgalactic medium.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

How stars and supernovae pollute

The FORTIS mission will quantify how much gas gets pumped into the CGM as part of this recycling process. Specifically, the telescope measures the winds of stars and supernovae to find out how much gas is blown into the CGM — and how much flies right past it.

"If gas is ejected at a very high speed, it'll escape the galaxy completely," McCandliss said. Precious metals may be shot through the CGM all the way to intergalactic space, dropping out of the recycling process. "But if they're ejected at a low speed they'll circulate around and help enrich the galaxy."

To this end, FORTIS will fly high on a sounding rocket, a suborbital space vehicle that launches into space for a 15-minute roundtrip before landing back on Earth. FORTIS will aim its instruments at the Triangulum galaxy, also known as M33, 2.7 million light-years away. Triangulum is bright, with many recently formed stars boasting strong stellar winds.


The Triangulum galaxy, also known as Messier 33 or M33, as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Credits: NASA, ESA, and M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, and B. F. Williams (University of Washington)

After about a minute observing M33, FORTIS will focus on its brightest clusters of stars and supernovae to measure the speed and composition of their winds. "This will all give us an idea of how that material is circulating and just how much of it is being moved," McCandliss said.

New tech, new science

Like many sounding rocket missions, FORTIS will pursue these science questions while testing new tools. For this flight, FORTIS is using a next-generation microshutter array that builds on a design used for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The updated instrument will allow FORTIS to measure up to 40 separate targets at a time, in wavelengths of far-ultraviolet light beyond what earlier versions could resolve.

"It's new science enabled by new technologies," said McCandliss. "We want to train our workforce into bigger and better missions."

The FORTIS mission will launch from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on a Black Brant IX sounding rocket. The trajectory peaks at an altitude of approximately 155 miles before falling back to Earth for recovery. The team expects six minutes of observing time, with a total flight time of approximately 15 minutes. The launch window opens on Oct. 27 at 10:30 p.m. MDT.

By Miles Hatfield
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Last Updated: Oct. 25, 2019
Editor: Miles Hatfield

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FORTIS

 Jonathan McDowell‏ @planet4589 23 мин. назад

NASA launched a Black Brant IX rocket from White Sands at 0430 UTC Oct 28 carrying the @JohnsHopkins FORTIS ultraviolet spectrograph to study the galaxy M33. Congrats to @stephanrmac on an apparently successful flight!