MSGID: 1:3828/7 a4019308
NASA's Sounding Rockets
 
The spectacle of a mammoth rocket `breaking the surly bonds of Earth' takes our
breath away. Equally amazing are the secrets revealed to us by science missions
these rockets have launched - and NASA puts careful thought into what kind of
mission will best achieve that science. Sometimes a large, multi-instrumented
mission on a giant rocket is the best way to go. But other missions are better
suited to a smaller, less expensive rocket as the key to getting a quick answer
to a tightly focused science question. Like a sounding rocket.  A sounding
rocket is an instrument-carrying rocket designed for research, such as taking
measurements and performing scientific experiments during a sub-orbital flight.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyfQish8yqA
 
Kristina Lynch, Professor of Physics at Dartmouth College says, "A sounding
rocket experiment can be designed in six months. From proposal acceptance
through data analysis, a mission can be done in 1-3 years, as opposed to many
more years for a typical satellite mission. The trade-off is that you only get
10 minutes in space - but, as my colleagues in the sounding rocket community
say, `It's a great 10 minutes!'"
 
Sounding rockets afford a certain amount of flexibility. Because they can be
launched from temporary sites all over the world, sounding rockets can be used
for remote field studies. They can also be used to develop and test new
scientific instrumentation for use in more costly, longer duration orbital
missions. And because of their low cost and short lead time, sounding rocket
missions are perfect for use by university graduate students, particularly to
gather data for PhD dissertations.
 
Sounding rockets are especially well suited for studying areas of the Earth's
upper atmosphere inaccessible by orbital missions, providing the only way to
directly sample the lower portion of near-Earth space with scientific probes.
Furthermore, they are ideally suited to position an experiment for an up-close
look at auroras - beautiful green curtains of light that sometimes dance across
the night sky.
 
While auroras can be wondrous to behold, they are sparked by geomagnetic storms
with potential side-effects such as satellite malfunctions and power outages.
Telecommunications, air traffic, power grids, and Global Positioning System
signals are vulnerable. So, understanding this layer of near Earth space is
vital.
 
Lynch says, "Sounding rockets are used to get above the part of Earth's
atmosphere where we live and breathe. Above 60 miles (100 km), the atmosphere
includes an electrically charged gas where charged particles flit around,
collide, respond to magnetic and electric fields, and produce an aurora. These
`northern and southern lights' appear flame-like, but the movement looks slower
than that of a flame, and their structure can be more orderly. We want to
understand this movement and structure. Is the movement fast or slow? Why?
Where is it going?"
 
Lynch is working on a sounding rocket mission that could provide some answers.
ISINGLASS, short for Ionospheric Structuring: In Situ and Ground-based Low
Altitude StudieS, launched on March 2 and is one of about 20 sounding rockets
that NASA will be launching in 2017.
 
ISINGLASS deployed an array of payloads launched by a single rocket to take
measurements at several locations in an aurora simultaneously. Understanding
what the aurora's visual patterns signify within the aurora itself can serve as
an analog to help scientists understand what's happening farther out, even
extending this information to auroras on other planets.
 
All it takes . is "a great 10 minutes."
 
For more news about science in and around Earth's atmosphere, stay tuned to
science.nasa.gov.
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- DB 3.99 + W10 (1703)