UCF Project Selected
For NASA Explorer Mission
(15 July 2008) NASA last week selected
a University of Central Florida project that will measure the temperature and
make-up of the Earth's outer atmosphere as one of two missions of opportunity
under its Explorer science space program.
The Global-Scale
Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) project led by UCF Physicist Richard
Eastes will build and fly a special camera known as an imaging spectrograph to
record images of ultraviolet light emitted by the atmosphere approximately 62
miles above the Earth's surface.
The data are important because they
help predict space weather. Space weather impacts electrical systems on the
ground and disrupts satellites orbiting the earth. Businesses and consumers
have come to rely more and more on satellites, which are essential for cell
phone, television and GPS navigation systems. GOLD will be able to measure from
a satellite orbiting in sync with the earth, meaning the data can be collected
across an entire hemisphere throughout the day.
Eastes, who conducts his
research at UCF's Florida Space Institute at Kennedy Space Center, has focused
on GOLD for the last three years. While he serves as the scientific lead on the
project, researchers from UCF's Center for Research and Education in Optics and
Lasers (CREOL) and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
have developed the hardware and optics required for the mission and will
process the data from the spectrograph. A University of Colorado team will
build the camera, which is expected to be the size of a breadbox, and collect
the data.
"It was necessary to make a convincing case that we could
build the instrument, get it into orbit, and use the data for important new
science," Eastes said. He added that one of the key factors in UCF's securing
the project was the team's ability to secure a commercial satellite to carry
the camera, about the size of a breadbox, into space. "There has never been a
NASA science instrument flown on a commercial communications satellite," he
said.
NASA's Explorer program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost
access to space for physics missions with small to mid-sized spacecraft. More
than 70 U.S. and co-operative missions have been launched under the program
since it was established in 1958. The GOLD project was one of two missions of
opportunity selected from 17 applicants. The other project will provide an
instrument for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's New exploration X-Ray
telescope to study black holes and extreme environments in the
universe.
Eastes and his team will initially receive US$ 250,000 to
develop a concept study by the end of the year.
UCF's team members
include: Professors James Harvey of CREOL; Hassan Foroosh, Jun Wang and Huiyang
Zhou from the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and Andrey
Krywonos, a recent Ph.D. graduate from CREOL. In addition to the University of
Colorado, partners include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's space weather prediction center, the National Center for
Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory, the University of California
at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, and
Computation Physics, Inc.
UCF Stands For Opportunity --The University of
Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the 6th
largest in the nation with more than 48,000 students. UCF's first classes were
offered in 1968. The university offers impressive academic and research
environments that power the region's economic development. UCF's culture of
opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of
entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy.
(source:
University of Central Florida)
