SRPO Annual Report 2016.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA

Sounding Rockets Annual Report 2016

Phil Eberspeaker Chief, Sounding Rockets Program Office

M es sa g e fr o m t h e

C h ie f

Another year has passed, and the NASA Sounding Rockets Program has once again completed a wide variety of impres-sive scientific, educational, and technology demonstration missions. We launched eight missions from sites in Norway, New Mexico and Virginia that carried science payloads to study the Earth's near space environment, deep space ob-jects, and our own local star, the sun. We also supported two student flight missions and three technology test flights to flight qualify new components and support systems offered to our customers. These new components and systems will enhance scientific return on future missions.

The missions we supported continue our long tradition of training the next generation of engineers and scientists.

The instruments that were flown on our missions collected important scientific data that will help us better understand the Earth, the solar system, and the universe we live in. Our missions helped develop new detectors and instruments that will be applied to larger more sophisticated NASA missions.

As an example, the Johns Hopkins Far-Ultraviolet Off- Rowland Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy (FORTIS) payload, which has also flown in previous years, validated the performance of a Micro Shutter Array (MSA) to be used on the massive James Webb Telescope, and the NextGenFOR- TIS instrument is currently under development and will test an even more advanced MSA with electronic shutters and other new technologies for future telescopes. Sounding rockets are the ultimate platforms for these types of continu-ous improvement projects, leading to overall efficiencies in the Nation’s space program.

The Sounding Rockets Program also made world-class sci-ence discoveries over the past year. Our geospace missions continued to collect data to better understand the Sun-Earth interaction and space weather. The University of Miami Dif-fuse X-ray emission from the Local Galaxy (DXL) mission collected critical data that has helped scientists solve the questions of the origins on X-rays emanating in the Local Hot Bubble (LHB) that was generated by multiple, ancient supernova explosions that occurred in our region of space.

The program once again push the boundaries of technol-ogy, not only for the program itself, but also for NASA as a whole. For example, we flew several technology demonstra-tion experiments for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Flight Opportunities Program (FOP).

This included the RadPC, a computer system that uses a novel architecture and off-the-shelf parts to increase flight computer reliability in the presence of high-energy radia-tion at a fraction of the cost of existing rad-hard computer systems. Another technology involved the VIP, a vibration isolation platform which will be used to reduce spacecraft disturbances during microgravity. We engaged in numerous other technology development efforts to enhance data trans-mission rates, more precisely deploy sub-payloads, enable long range water recovery, and enable higher altitude flights.

The program also continued its long tradition of training undergraduate and graduate students on our core science missions. Sounding rockets continue to be excellent plat-forms upon which graduate students can earn their PhD’s by participating as critical members of the PI’s science teams.

Sounding rockets continue to serve as the perfect tool for teaching STEM education to undergraduates and other students. We once again flew two university level RockOn and RockSat-X missions which hosted over 100 student experimenters. We also continued our tradition of K-12 STEM education by offering multifaceted hands-on teacher workshops, lectures, school visits, and tours of our facilities.

As I look back on our accomplishments over the past year I am once again impressed by the creativeness, dedication, and quality of our personnel. This not only includes technical staff, but also the business and administrative staff that make the program run so well and efficiently.

I am once again proud to lead this organization in providing NASA and the nation with low-cost, flexible access to space and I look forward to many more years of the Sounding Rockets Program serving the nation.

Table of Contents Message from the Chief 2

Sounding Rockets Overview 5 Solar Physics Missions 2016 6

Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) 8 High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) 10

Astrophysics Missions 2016 12 Planet Imaging Coronagraphic Technology Using a Reconfigurable Experimental Base (PICTURE-B) 14 The Far-Ultraviolet Off-Rowland Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy (FORTIS) 15 Diffuse X-rays from the Local Galaxy (DXL) 17 Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph (CHESS) 19

Geospace Missions 2016 22 Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling (RENU 2) 24 Cusp Alfven and Plasma Electrodynamics Rocket (CAPER) 25

Education Missions 2016 29 RockOn! & RockSat-C 30 RockSat-X 34

Technology and Special Projects Missions 2016 39 Technology - Test and Support 40 Multiple User Suborbital Instrument Carrier (MUSIC) 42 Special Projects 43

STEM Education 45 Wallops Rocketry Academy for Teachers and Students 46 Internships and Outreach 47

Technology Development 49 Water Recovery Shutter Door 51 Clamshell Skin Development 51 Free-Flying Ampule Development 52 High Data Rate Encoder 52 Upcoming Technology Development Flights 53 Peregrine Static Firing 54 Prototype Spin Motor 54 Medium Mobile Launcher (MML) 55 Side-Opening Vacuum Doors 55 Manufacturing Cells 56

On the Horizon 59 Kwajalein 2017 60 Grand Challenge (GC) - Norway FY 2018 60 Australia Campaign 62

Charts 64 Mission Success History 64 Sounding Rocket Vehicles 65 Sounding Rocket Vehicle Performance 66 Sounding Rocket Launch Sites 67 Contact Information 68 Sounding Rockets Program Office personnel 69

T e c h n o l o g y

Vacuum Doors

Water Recovery

SUB-PAYLOAD development for SWARMS

Clam Shell Skin

Mobile Launcher The Medium Mobile Launcher (MML) is the first launcher to be developed in-house by NSROC and is designed to launch vehicles as large as a Black Brant X (Terrier-Black Brant- Nihka) with a 1,000 pound payload.

Side-opening vacuum doors have been developed and tested to accommodate very large detectors requiring vacuum sealing for cleanliness.

New sub-payload systems have been developed for distributed measurements in space. To enable data collection over a larger area (volume) small rocket propelled sub-payloads are deployed to distances as far as 20 km from the main payload.

Telescope instruments are frequently reused after flight and to facilitate launches over water a new vacuum shutter door has been developed and tested. The new door will protect the instrument from saltwater after impact.

The Sounding Rockets Program Office (SRPO) and the NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC) carry out NASA's sub-orbital rocket program. A fleet of vehicles acquired from military surplus or pur-chased commercially is used to carry scientific and technology payloads to altitudes between 50 and 1,500 kilometers. All payload support systems, such as Telemetry, Attitude Control, and Recovery are designed and fabricated by NSROC machinists, techni-cians and engineers. Launch operations are conduct-ed worldwide to facilitate science requirements, for example Geospace research is often conducted in the arctic from launch sites in Norway and Alaska. In-creasing mission complexities are addressed through continuous improvement in systems design and devel-opment.

Load bearing clamshell skin have been developed and flown.

The new design is intended as a replacement for both long skirts and large deployable doors. By replacing a conventional skirt, the clamshell skin removes the chance of the skin touching the structure as it deploys. When used to replace a large blow-off door, the clamshell provides the structural support of a skin while allowing the same working volume as a blow-off door system.

M is s io n s

M a n u fa c t u r in g

Integration and testing

Sounding Rockets Overview

Automated Inspection

Manufacturing Cells

Thirteen missions from three different launch sites, covering seven disciplines, were conducted in Fis-cal Year 2016.

The custom manu-facturing required for sounding rockets is enabled by state of the art machines and tooling. Efficiencies and throughput have been increased through the creation of manufactur-ing cells. This allows one machinist to operated several Computer Neumatic Control (CNC) machines simultaneously.

The increasing complexity of sounding rocket mission profiles and payload support system requirements leads to increasingly complex integration and testing processes. Mission profiles can involve deploying sub-payloads at specific intervals in specific directions at varying velocities. Payloads with multiple science instruments may require multiple Telemetry and Attitude Control Systems. In 2016 approximately twenty payloads were integrated and tested for flight.

Automated inspection of electrical components verifies assembly of cir-cuits prior to utilization in payloads.

304 Å: Emitted by helium-2 (He II) at around 50,000 Kelvin. This light is emitted from the chromosphere and transition region.

211 Å: Emitted by iron-14 (Fe XIV) at temperatures of 2,000,000 Kelvin. These images show hotter, magnetically active regions in the Sun’s corona.

193 Å: Em itted by iron-12 (Fe XII) at

1,000,000 Kelvin (hotter region of the corona) and iron 24 (Fe XXIV) at

20,000,000 Kelvin (hotter m aterial in a flare). 94 Å: Em itt ed by iron-18 (Fe XVIII) at tem peratures of 6,000,000 Kelvin. Tem peratures like this represent regions of the corona during a solar flare.

171 Å: Em itted by iron-9

(Fe IX) at around 600,000

Kelvin. This w avelength show s the quiet corona and coronal loops.

131 Å: Em itt ed by iron-20 (Fe XX) and iron-23 (Fe XXIII) at tem peratures greater than 10,000,000 Kelvin, representing the m aterial in flares.

335 Å: Emitted by iron-16 (Fe XVI) at temperatures of 2,500,000 Kelvin. These images also show hotter, magnetically active regions in the corona.

1700 Å: Ultraviolet light continuum, shows surface of the Sun. As well as a layer of the Sun’s atmosphere called the chromosphere, which lies just above the photosphere and is where the temperature begins rising.

1700 Å

4,500 K

Å

.6 mil K

211 Å

2 mil K

304 Å 50,000 K

335 Å ~2.2 mil K

1600 Å 10,000 K

Å m il K

Å

,0

K

Å m il K

The 2016 Solar Physics Sounding Rocket missions focused on studying the sun in the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) part of the spectrum. The two missions included EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) and High Resolution Coronal Imager (HI-C). Extreme Ultraviolet radiation is created by very energetic processes occurring in several layers of the Sun. The Hi-C mission focused on the corona and the EVE mission was an underflight calibration of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft.

Solar Physics Missions 2016

Convection Zone

Radiative Zone

Inner Core

Subsurface flow s

Photosphere

Chromosphere

Corona

E V E

Credit: Multispectral background image NASA/SDO/ GSFC Visualization Studio

H i-C

1600 Å: Emitted by carbon-4 (C IV) at around 10,000 Kelvin. C IV at these temperatures is present in the upper photosphere and what’s called the transition region. The transition region is where the temperature rapidly rises.

Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE)

The EVE sounding rocket instrument is used for calibrating a similar instrument onboard the SDO spacecraft. The EVE sounding rocket is launched annually to enable correction of the satellite data. The SDO mission provides measurements and models of solar magnetic fields, active region dynamics, and the solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation that can dramatically disturb Earth’s space weather environment. EVE measures the solar EUV irradiance, the power per unit area (mW/m2), produced by the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation.

Physics based models are used to advance the understanding of irradiance variations based on the activity of the solar magnetic features. EVE measures spectral irradiance at wavelengths of 0.1 - 1216 Å.

High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C)

The main objective of the Hi-C investigation was to determine the geometric configuration and topology of the structures making up the inner corona. The mission was designed to study the mechanisms for growth, diffusion, and reconnection of magnetic fields, and the coupling of small-scale dynamic and eruptive processes to large-scale dynamics. Hi-C observations were coordinated with several NASA spacecraft. The scientific objectives of Hi-C are central to the goal of understanding the Sun’s activity and its effects on the terrestrial environment, by providing unique and unprecedented views of the dynamic activity in the solar atmosphere. Hi-C studied the sun at the 171 Å wavelength.

This plot of SDO EVE data shows time series of 5 strong EUV emission lines. Also shown is a Dark value, which is a detector that is blocked from seeing the Sun, which shows energetic particles from the Sun that can penetrate the EVE instrument and cause false counts. This Dark diode will increase during solar storms

Top - HI-C image from the 2012 sounding rocket flight. Bottom - the same region imaged with SDO Atmospheric Imaging Assembly.

Electromagnetic Radiation

Most of the radiation emitted by the Sun is blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere. In order to study the Sun at these wavelengths, instruments have to be placed in space. Spacecraft such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) include multispectral instruments and have mission durations of several years. Sounding rockets are used for both fundamental science exploration and development of future technologies for spacecraft. With short mission lead times and lower cost, sounding rockets enable world class science discovery.

Instruments for Solar Physics

Spectrographs are commonly used instruments for solar physics. A spectrograph measures radiation intensity as a function of wavelength. All elements in the periodic table have associated characteristic spectra. When energy is added to an element, i.e., when electrons in an atom are excited and then transition back from this excited state to their ground energy levels, they emit radiation at specific wavelengths. Scientists have cataloged spectral wavelengths of the elements and use that information to determine the presence of these elements in the Sun and other stars. Elements found on the Sun, using spectroscopy, include hydrogen and helium with smaller amounts of other elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, magnesium, silicone, sulfur, and iron.

Knowing which elements are present, and their ionization temperatures, allows scientists to determine the temperature of the various regions of the Sun. To ionize an atom, enough energy has to be added to free electron(s) from the atom. For example, to ionize iron, which in its neutral state has 26 electrons (Fe I), temperatures around one million Kelvin are required. When the iron atoms encounter these temperatures eight or nine of the electrons are freed and ions of Fe

IX and Fe X are created and EUV radiation at a wavelength of 171 Å is emitted.

Part of a solar ultraviolet emission line spectrum was obtained with NASA's Solar Extreme-ultraviolet Research Telescope and Spectrograph (SERTS) sounding rocket experiment. Wavelength increases from 300 Å on the far left to 350 Å on the far right. The graph in the bottom frame is a different way to show how bright the lines are at each different wavelength. Intensity, how bright the line is, in the y-axis, and wavelength is in the x-axis. The most prominent lines are labelled with their respective elements.

Credit: Dr. Jeffrey Brosius/NASA GSFC

Si X

I H e

II

Fe X

V Fe

X V

II

E xt r em e u lt ra vi o le t Va r ia b il it y

E xp er im en t

(E V E

Principal Investigator: Dr.Thomas Woods/University of Colorado • Mission Number(s): 36.318 UE Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM • Launch date: June 1, 2016

NASA successfully launched a Black Brant IX sounding rocket at 1 p.m. MDT on June 1, 2016 from the White Sands Missile

Range, NM, carrying instrumentation to support the calibration of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solar instruments aboard the Solar

Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, satellite. The rocket payload from the University of Colorado (CU) and University of Southern Cali-fornia (USC) includes the EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) that measures the energetic EUV emissions from the sun. These observa-tions by the rocket EVE and flight SDO EVE are full-disk spectra, or irradiance, over the EUV range from 0.1 nm to 122 nm. Because of the on-going degradation of the SDO EVE and Atmospheric

Imaging Assembly (AIA) instruments since the SDO launch in Feb-ruary 2010, these rocket EVE solar measurements are important for providing an accurate calibration for the SDO satellite instruments.

This was the fifth under-flight calibration for the SDO instruments, and it was highly anticipated because the previous flight in May 21, 2015 (NASA 36.300) was not successful due to a boost guidance system gyro anomaly and the last successful flight was almost three years ago on October 21, 2013 (NASA 36.290). With this success-ful flight this June, the next under-flight calibration for the EVE instrument is planned for June 2018 with the intention of an under-flight rocket calibration every two years during the SDO mission.

Figure 1. The NASA 36.318 rocket for calibrating the Solar Dynamics Observatory solar extreme ultraviolet instruments had a very successful flight on June 1, 2016 from the White Sands Missile Range.

Figure 2. The solar extreme ultraviolet spectrum from the NASA 36.318 flight is provided from several different channels of the rocket EVE instrument: Multiple EUV Grating Spectrograph (MEGS) channels A1, A2, and B with 0.1 nm spectral resolution and the EUV SpectroPhotometer (ESP) five broadband channels. The solar EUV spectrum is rich with hundreds of emission lines from the chromosphere, transition region, and corona layers of the solar atmosphere.

The mission principal investigator Tom Woods, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, reports that these under-flight data are excellent and are one of the highest quality measurements due to lower noise from the cooled CCD sensors than previous flights. The solar EUV irradiance spectrum from this flight is shown in

Figure 2. In addition to updating the calibration for the SDO satellite instruments, this rocket measurement is also valuable for the broader solar international community because this rocket measurement will validate solar EUV observations from NASA Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), NASA Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE), NASA Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics

(TIMED), NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), NASA/JAXA Hinode, NOAA Geosta-tionary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), and ESA Proba2 missions.

The web links for SDO EVE and LASP rocket programs are:

http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/eve/ http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/missions-projects/lasp-rockets/current-launch-status/

Principal Investigator: Dr.Thomas Woods/University of Colorado • Mission Number(s): 36.318 UE Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM • Launch date: June 1, 2016

H ig h R es o lu ti o n

C o r o na l Im ag er

H i-C

Principal Investigator: Dr. Jonathan Cirtain/NASA Marshall Space Flight Center • Mission Number(s): 36.314 NS Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM • Launch date: July 27, 2016

The High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) mission flew for the second time in 2016.

Hi-C is designed to capture the highest-resolution images of the sun’s million-degree atmosphere, called the corona, in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength. This higher energy wavelength of light is optimal for viewing the hot solar corona.

The science goal of the second flight was to identify the connection between the solar chromosphere, transition region, and corona in the hottest and most active regions of the corona. To meet this science goal, the high resolution coronal images from Hi-C would be combined with data from the Interface Re-gion Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), the Solar

Dynamics Observatory Atmospheric Imaging

Array (AIA) and Helioseismic Magnetic Im-ager (HMI) and the instruments on the Hinode spacecraft. Additionally, the mission was designed to study the mechanisms for growth, diffusion, and reconnection of magnetic fields of the corona, and to help understand the coupling of small-scale dynamic and eruptive processes to large scale dynamics.

Hi-C was a pathfinder mission designed to place significant new limits on theories of coronal heating and dynamics by measuring the structures at size scales relevant to reconnection physics. The Hi-C instrument used normal-incidence EUV multilayer technology, as developed in the Normal Incidence X-ray Telescope (NIXT) and Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) programs. A dual-channel long focal-length telescope and large format back-illuminated CCD camera provided spectroscopic imaging of the corona at 0.3 arcsec resolution.

Due to a failed electrical connection, the instrument shutter did not open in flight and science data was not collected.

Patrick Champey (University of Alabama – Huntsville graduate student), Richard Gates and William Podgorski (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) complete an alignment procedure on the Hi-C instrument in a clean room at the National Space Science Technology Center in Huntsville, Alabama, prior to shipping to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for its July 19, 2016, launch.

11Setting up to align the Solar Pointing Attitude Rocket Control System (SPARCS).

Astrophysics seeks to understand the universe and our place in it and aims to discover how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars.

Spectrometers and telescopes are frequently flown onboard sounding rockets for Astrophysics research. Telescopes focus the incoming radiation from a target object and spectrometers spread light out into specific wavelengths creating a spectra.

All atoms and molecules have characteristic spectra that produce absorption or emission lines at specific wavelengths.

This allows scientists to get information about composition, temperature, and other variables of the astronomical target of their study.

Emission line spectra are created when an electron drops down to a lower orbit around the nucleus of an atom and loses energy. Absorption line spectra occur when electrons move to a higher orbit by absorbing energy.

The Far-Ultraviolet Off-Rowland Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy (FORTIS)

FORTIS is an innovative, multi-object, far-Ultraviolet (UV) spectro/telescope that splits the light from the target galaxy into its composite wavelengths.

How much of each wavelength is present holds clues to the atoms present in the space through which the light is traveling. Scientists studied the wavelengths of energy emitted and absorbed by different types of hydrogen to quantify how much material is flowing in and out of the target galaxy NGC 1365, the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy.

Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Rocket Experiment (PICTURE)

The goal of this mission was to obtain a direct image of a planetary environment around another star, Epsilon Eridani (ε Eri). ε Eri contains at least one planet and a substantial dust disk, discovered around the star in 1998. The primary goal of PICTURE was to directly image this inner 3 AU dust belt in reflected visible light. This would provide a measurement of the dusty background to help guide future attempts to image the planet.

Astrophysics Missions 2016

Visible light is what we are most familiar with on Earth. Visible light ranges in wavelength from 400 nm to 700 nm, with violet being the shortest wavelength and red the longest. Absorption and emission spectra of objects in the Universe reveal information about the elements present, the temperature, and density of those elements and the presence of a magnetic field and many other variables.

Continuos spectra are created by hot opaque objects.

An absorption spectrum is created when energy from a hot opaque object travels through cooler transparent gas.

Hot transparent gas, such as gaseous nebulae, create emission spectra.

High energy and high temperature processes in the Universe radiate in the Ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Knowledge of star formation and evolution, growth of structure in the Universe, physics of jet phenomena on many scales, aurora on and atmospheric composition of the gas giant planets, and of the physics of protoplanetary disks has been expanded through UV observations.

To emit X-rays, gas must be under extreme conditions, such as temperatures of millions of degrees, superstrong magnetic fields, or electrons must be moving at nearly the speed of light. Extreme conditions can be found in disks of matter orbiting black holes or in supernova remnants. Strong magnetic fields, like those created in the wake of a supernova explosion, can also accelerate fast moving ions in spirals around the field lines to the point of X-ray emission. X-rays are classified into two types: soft X-rays and hard X-rays. Soft X-rays fall in the range of the EM spectrum between (UV) light and gamma-rays. Soft X-rays have relatively short wavelengths — about 10 nanometers (nm), to about 100 picometers (pm). Hard X-rays have wavelengths of about 100 pm to about 1 pm and are very close to gamma-rays. The only difference between them is their source: X-rays are produced by accelerating electrons, while gamma-rays are produced by atomic nuclei.

Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph

(CHESS) 2

CHESS studied translucent clouds in the interstellar medium (ISM).

CHESS allowed measurement of the composition, motion and temperature of this interstellar material in unprecedented detail.

CHESS also took a snapshot of the raw materials available that were needed to develop planets, such as, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen.

High-resolution absorption line spectroscopy when looking toward hot stars, such as ε Persei (epsilon Persei) the target for CHESS, provides a rich set of diagnostics with which to simultaneously measure the temperature, composition, and velocity fields of the solar neighborhood.

Diffuse X-rays from the Local Galaxy (DXL)

DXL studied the irregularly shaped cavity, the Local Hot Bubble (LHB) filled with X-ray-emitting hot gas.

These X-ray emissions have long been thought to originate from remnants of supernovae which formed the local hot bubble. The first flight of DXL, in 2012, found that around 40 percent of this radiation is a result of the Solar Wind Charge Exchange (SWCX) i.e.

solar wind stripping away electrons from neutral gas in space and emitting X-rays. The purpose of the 2016 flight was to better understand the nature and characteristics of the local hot bubble, the solar wind charge exchange, and their fundamental physics. Results from this flight will improve modeling capability of X-ray data for past, present, and future missions.

Hydrogen absorption spectra in visible wavelengths.

Hydrogen emission spectra in visible wavelengths.

Electromagnetic Radiation

P la ne t

Im ag in g C o r o na g ra ph ic

T ec h no lo g y

U si ng a

R ec o nfi g u ra b le

E xp er im en ta l B as e (P

IC

TU

R E -B

Principal Investigator: Dr. Supriya Chakrabarti/University of Massachussetts - Mission Number(s): 36.293 UG Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM - Launch date: November 25, 2015

The PICTURE-B (36.293) sounding rocket mission was designed to directly image the exozodiacal dust and debris disk around the Sun-like star Epsilon Eridani. In addition to the science contributions of PICTURE-

B, the mission also matured essential technology for the detection and characterization of visible light from exoplanets for future larger missions currently being imagined. These technologies include: an ultralight-weight

0.5 m diameter silicon carbide primary mirror, a wavefront control system that uses a 32x32 element MEMS deformable mirror (DM), a milliarcsecond pointing control system, and the heart of the PICTURE instrument, the Visible Nulling Coronagraph (VNC, nuller). The VNC attenuates the overwhelmingly bright light from a star, while enabling dim light from material around the star (dust and planets) to reach the science camera. The electronics section on PICTURE-B includes three networked computers controlling the nuller, the science and wavefront sensing cameras, and the fine pointing system.

The experiment was launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on November 24, 2015 and demonstrated the first space operation of a nulling coronagraph and a deformable mirror. Regrettably, the ex-periment did not achieve null due to a slight shift in the deformable mirror position on launch. Because of this, it did not return any science results. The fine pointing system performed extremely well, optically stabilizing the pointing to between 3 and 5 milliarcseconds. The wavefront control system successfully sensed the wavefront at the required precision of 1 nm RMS.

The next generation PICTURE-C mission has been selected by NASA to fly aboard a high-altitude balloon in

2017 and 2019.

Electronics Instrument Telescope

Th e

Fa r -U lt ra vi o le t O ff

-R o w la nd T el es c o pe f o r I m ag in g a nd S p ec tr o sc o p y

(F O R

TI

S

Principal Investigator: Dr. Stephan McCandliss/Johns Hopkins University - Mission Number(s): 36.312 UG Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM - Launch date: December 18, 2015

The Far-Ultraviolet Off-Rowland Telescope for Imaging and

Spectroscopy (FORTIS 36.312) launched from the White Sands

Missile Range in New Mexico to investigate the properties of galaxy

NGC 1365, also known as the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy. FORTIS aimed to contribute knowledge to one of the remaining mysteries about the evolution of the universe, namely, how did it get reion-ized about 400 million years ago.

FORTIS has a multi-object spectroscopic capability between 800

- 2000 Å and an imaging bandpass of 1300 - 2000 Å and uses a novel prototype Micro Shutter Array (MSA) with 64 x 128 indi-vidually selectable slitlets addressed by a zero-order microshutter interface (ZOMI) module controlled by a National Instruments cRIO. cRIO selects only the brightest regions of the target galaxy in each row of microshutters for observation, resulting in 43 different spectra in each of the two redundant spectral orders.

FORTIS was designed to detect Lyman α (Lyα) escape from nearby starforming galaxies, and to serve as a pathfinder mission for enabling observations of Lyman Continuum (LyC) escape. The primary science goal was to determine the Lyα escape fraction and relate it to other observable properties, such as the gas-to-dust ratio.

The 2016 flight was an engineering success (notably successful actuation of the Microshutter Array), but did not produce actionable science, as the target was too faint to detect in the face of higher than anticipated geo-coronal oxygen and hydrogen emissions. The data gathered during flight are an indispensable guide for efforts to develop a next generation FORTIS, the goal for which is to reduce the sensitivity to geocoronal emissions by a factor of ~ 200. Evaluation of new baffle materials and configurations to enable this reduction is in progress.

NextGenFORTIS will also employ two new technologies in the form of large area borosilicate microchannel plate (MCP) detectors coated with CsI (Cesium Iodide), and an advanced Microshutter Array featuring a purely electronic, pulsed actuation technique for opening the shutters; as opposed to the previous mechanical tech-nique that employed a scanning magnet. The new MCPs have larger open area ratios and are more immune to electron gain sag, which will lead to higher quantum efficiency and provide a more linear response at higher count rates. The pulse actuated MSA assembly will be smaller, have a longer lifetime, and be simpler to operate.

Results from a previous FORTIS mission, 36.296 UG flown November 20, 2013 to study Comet ISON, were published in 2016 in The Astronomical Journal (152:65 (10pp), 2016 September). This flight successfully returned images from ISON of Lyman alpha emission and neutral carbon emission (see Figure 1).

NGC1365 is a giant Seyfert type galaxy in Fornax with a diameter of 200,000 light years.

Radial profiles were extracted, showing that the peak brightnesses were 625K rayleighs for Lyman alpha (Figure 2) and 27K rayleighs for carbon (Figure 3) in the 1657 Angstrom multiplet (in compari-son, the night time brightness of geocoronal Lyman alpha is ~ 3K rayleighs; during the day it is a factor of 10 stronger). Water and carbon production rates were found to be Q(H2O) = 8e29/sec, Q(C)=4e28/sec. The profile of C emission was consistent with pro-duction from a parent molecule with a lifetime of less than a day, which is much shorter than the lifetime of CO ~ 15 days. An up-per limit to the CO production rate of Q(CO) < 5e28/sec, yielding an upper limit to the abundance of CO relative to water of < 6%.

In future work the intent is to examine the data in the context of nearly contiguous far-UV spectral observations acquired over 19 to 21 November 2013 made by Mercury Atmospheric and Surface

Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) on NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft to further investigate the water production variability and to place more stringent limits on the CO production, during this extremely volatile period. These results appeared in McCandliss et

al. 2016 AJ, 152, 65. Link:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/0004-6256/152/3/65/pdf

Figure 2. Radial profile for Lyman alpha.

Figure 3. Radial profile for carbon.

Figure 1. Images of Lyman Alpha emission and neutral carbon emission from ISON acquired by FORTIS.

D if fu se

X -r ay s fr o m t h e

Lo c al

G al ax y

(D X L)

Principal Investigator: Dr Massimiliano Galeazzi/University of Miami - Mission Number(s): 36.305 UH Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM - Launch date: December 5, 2015

The objective of the Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local Galaxy (DXL) sounding rocket experiment was to distinguish the soft X-ray emission (with energies of 0.12-5 keV, kilo electron Volts) emanating from the Local

Hot Bubble (LHB) from those produced via Solar Wind charge exchange (SWCX). The 300 light years long bubble is filled with very thin hot gas and was formed by a cluster of supernova explosions about 10 million years ago.

The first flight of DXL in 2012 found that around 40 percent of the Diffuse X-ray emission is a result of the solar wind charge exchange, that is, solar wind tak-ing away electrons from neutral gas in space and emitting X-rays.

The purpose of the 2016 flight was to better understand the nature and characteristics of the

LHB and SWCX. Additionally the flight will enhance the un-derstanding of the fundamental physics of the LHB and SWCX and the results will improve modeling capability of X-ray data for past, present, and future missions.

DXL uses Proportional counters refurbished from Aerobee rockets in the 70s and 80s. The instrument is de-signed for heliophysics, astrophysics, and planetary physics applications. DXL consists of two large proportional counters refurbished from the Aerobee payload used during the Wisconsin All Sky Survey. The counters utilize

P-10 fill gas (P10 is 90% argon and 10% methane) and are covered by a thin Formvar (polyvinyl formaldehyde) window with Cyasorb UV-24 additive supported on a nickel mesh. DXL also includes the Cusp Plasma Imag-ing Detector (CuPID) instrument. CuPID is a Soft X-ray camera that utilizes slumped micropore ('lobster‐eye') optics to focus X-rays onto a position sensitive, chevron configuration micro channel plate detector. The Cube-

Sat version of CuPID, DXL/STORM, flew successfully with DXL on the 2012 flight.

To differentiate between X-rays from the two sources DXL was launched in December when the Earth passes through the helium focusing cone, a region where neutral helium from the interstellar helium wind is concen-trated by the gravitational influence of the Sun. The helium focusing cone is a strong source of interplanetary

SWCX, but planets, including Earth, may have stronger emission. The X-ray glow of the helium could not account for all of the X-rays measured, leading to the conclusion that the difference is emitted by the hot gas in the LHB.

DXL science team working on preparing instrument for integration and testing at NASA GSFC Wallops Flight Facility. Prior to shipment of hardware and personnel to the launch site, the payload goes through extensive testing, including vibration to flight loads, bend testing for aerodynamic integrity, balance and moments of inertia measurements to ensure the highest possible confidence in a successful flight.

Good data was received during the flight and preliminary analysis confirms the finding from DXL 1 that the

X-ray contribution from the SWCX is about forty percent in the galactic plane, and even less elsewhere, and the remaining X-rays must come from the Local Hot Bubble. DXL 2 also investigated the exact direction of the cone, which relates directly to the motion of the Sun in the Galaxy.

DXL payload sequence testing. Sequence testing involves going through all payload inflight events, such as door openings, Attitude Control Systems operations, recovery system deployments etc. as they would happen in flight.

Conducting a sequence test shows that the instrument and all payload support systems are still in working condition after all other testing is complete.

C o lo ra do

H ig h -r es o lu ti o n

E c h el le S te ll ar S pe c tr o g ra p h C H E S S

Principal Investigator: Dr. Kevin France/University of Colorado - Mission Number(s): 36.297 UG Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM - Launch date: February 22, 2016

NASA and the University of Colorado at Boulder collaborated to launch an astrophysics experiment into Earth’s near-space environment in order to study the life-cycle of stars in our Milky Way galaxy. The NASA/CU 36.297

UG – France mission launched off of the Athena launcher at Launch Complex 36, White Sands Missile Range, 21:15 MST, 21 Feb 2016. The CHESS-2 instrument acquired data on sightline to the hot star epsilon Persei for the entire 400 seconds of available observing time with detector high-voltage on. The payload was success-fully recovered the following morning at ~8am; all science-critical subsystems are alive and well, and are being refurbished for the next flight of the CHESS payload. Comprehensive success was achieved for 36.297 UG.

CHESS was designed to study the interstellar medium (ISM), the matter between stars, and specifically translu-cent clouds of gas which provide fundamental building blocks for star and planet formation. These clouds have very low densities and the only way to study them is to measure absorption spectra of light from stars passing through the cloud. CHESS was pointed at the star Epsilon Persei, in the constellation Perseus. When radiation from this star travels through the cloud some wavelenghts of energy are absorbed by the cloud. The absorbed wavelengths indicate the presence of specific elements, all of which have their unique spectral signatures. This allows scientists to take a snapshot of the raw materials available, such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, that are needed to build future generations of stars and planets. The CHESS spectrograph enables the University of

Colorado team to also quantify the temperature and motions of the clouds along the line of sight.

Energy created through nuclear reactions is radi-ated by the star. .

Some wavelengths of energy are absorbed by gas that the light travels through.

The spectrograph separates radiation into wavelengths.

Scientists analyze the spectra and deduce which elements are present in the gas cloud due to the lack of energy at wavelengths corresponding to specific elements.

Absorption spectra are created when radiation from an object travels through a gas, such as a nebula, or in the case of CHESS, a translucent cloud in the ISM. The gas absorbs some of the wavelenghts of energy leading to dark bands in the spectrum. For example, molecular hydrogen (H2) has a system of absorption lines near 1100 Å, a wavelength where the Hubble Space Telescope does not have high-resolution spectroscopic capability. H2 traces cool molecular material (100 K), and makes up 99.99% of the total molecular gas in the Galaxy. If H2 is present in the cloud that the starlight passes through, the spectrograph will show less energy at wavelengths near 1100 Å. The CHESS spectrograph measures energies in the Ultraviolet part of the spectrum, 1000 - 1600 Angstrom. This covers wavelengths of, for example, Oxygen VI, H2, several levels of ionized Carbon, Fe II and Mg II (once ionized Iron and Magnesium). These elements are all important for star and planet formation.

This spectrum extracted from raw CHESS flight data shows interstellar absorption features. It shows warm (Si III) and cool (N I) interstellar features against the stellar continuum.

Almost all of the target absorption lines were detected by the CHESS instru-ment, ranging from cool molecular gas (H2, T ~ 100 K) to Si IV (three times ionized silicon, T ~ 60,000 K). Figure 1 shows an echellogram; about 120 spec-tral orders across the 8196 pixel x 8196 pixel detector were recorded, and each spectral order is a horizontal stripe. There is a lot of data (about 5 million science counts in the flight were recorded). The two-dimensional spectrum shows several neutral and ionized species (labeled). A high-level science extraction has taken place (Figure 2), science and technical results were presented at the SPIE meeting in June 2016 and a subsequent publication led by the project’s lead graduate student (Keri Hoadley) is in preparation.

The refurbished high-count rate cross-strip MCP (developed, in part, as a Strategic Astrophysics Technology program at the University of California at Berkeley, - J. Vallerga SAT program) worked beautifully in-flight, a new echelle grating provided almost 10x the collecting efficiency as CHESS-1 (Figure 3), and this mission served as the second flight of the new high data rate suborbital telemetry system. The PI and science team are very happy with the performance of the CHESS system and will continue improvements as part of their research and development program on dispersive optics, projecting another factor of ~2 increase in throughput while decreasing instrumental scatter for the next flight, CHESS-3, June 2017.

Figure 1- 36.297 CHESS flight data, full two-dimensional echellogram with relevant molecular and atomic absorption features labeled.

Figure 3 - Component-level research and development (diffraction grating, at left) carried out as part of the CU rocket program provided ~10x the instrumental sensitivity (at right, 36.297, pink x’s) compared to CHESS-1 (36.285, blue x’s).

Figure 2 - 36.297 CHESS flight data, one-dimensional extraction.

The lead graduate student, Keri Hoadley, led all phases of the build-up, calibration, and integration of the

CHESS payload. She was at the command system for real-time control of the rocket during flight, “driving” the payload to center the target stars in the aperture. The CHESS project scientist, Dr. Brian Fleming, directed a significant portion of the field activities, gaining the PI-training that is one of the goals of the Colorado rocket program. The University of Colorado field team also included 3 other graduate students (Nick Kruczek, Nick

Erickson, Nicholas Nell) and one undergraduate student (Jack Swanson).

CHESS and the follow on mission under development, Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region

Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars (SISTINE), also are pathfinders and technology demonstrators for an ultraviolet spectrograph for the NASA cosmic origins mission, Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor (LUVOIR), currently under study. The Combined High-resolution and Imaging Spectrograph for the LUVOIR Surveyor

(CHISL) would address topics ranging from characterizing the composition and structure of planet-forming disks to the feedback of matter between galaxies and the intergalactic medium.

Link: http://cos.colorado.edu/~kevinf/

36.297 Recovery. Left to right: Nick Kruczek (Colorado grad student), Keri Hoadley (Colorado grad student), Brian Fleming (Colorado, CHESS project scientist)

Geospace Missions

Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling (RENU 2)

RENU studied the relationship between the inflow of electrons that creates the cusp aurora, electric currents flowing along magnetic field lines, and dense columns of heated neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere. The neutral upwelling was discovered when satellites travelling through the magnetic cusp experienced increased drag. When solar wind electrons collide with atmospheric electrons, they transfer some of their energy, heating the atmospheric electrons. The higher heat means the electron populations expand upward along the magnetic field lines.

Cusp Alfven and Plasma Electrodynamics Rocket (CAPER)

CAPER was designed to investigate electromagnetic (EM) waves that can accelerate electrons down into Earth’s atmosphere or up out to space.

The electrons that are accelerated downward collide with particles in the atmosphere, releasing light and creating the cusp aurora.

Geospace science focuses on the study of interactions between Earth and the space environment surrounding our planet. Part of the broader research discipline, Heliophysics, geospace scientists study Sun-Earth connections such as effects of the solar wind on the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere.

Sounding rockets are uniquely suited for many geospace research applications due to their ability to take measurements in a region of space too high for balloons and too low for satellites.

The aurora borealis, or northern lights, created when charged particles from the Sun are carried to Earth with the solar wind, are frequently studied with sounding rockets.

When these solar particles reach Earth, they get trapped in the magnetic field lines created by Earth’s magnetic core. At the geomagnetic poles, the field lines extend through the lower atmosphere, allowing the charged particles to interact with atoms of mostly Oxygen and Nitrogen. The charged particles, mostly electrons, energize the atoms by exciting their electrons, causing them to move to a higher energy level. This higher energy level is not stable and when the electron transits back to its initial level it emits a photon, causing the auroral light show. High energy electrons cause oxygen to emit green light, while low energy electrons cause a red light. Nitrogen generally gives off a violet-blue light.

The higher level is unstable and when the electron transits back it releases energy by emitting a photon

Electrons in the gas atom or molecule (mostly oxygen and nitrogen) are energized and move to a higher level around the nucleus

Incoming energetic particles (mostly electrons) collide with atmospheric gases.

Re d

0-nm

O ra ng e

7-nm

Ye llo w

7-nm

G re en

2-nm

Bl ue

5-nm

Vi ol et

0-nm

Red Aurora emitted by oxygen at 630 nm.

Green Aurora emitted by oxygen at

577.7 nm.

Violet-Blue Aurora emitted by nitrogen at

427.8 nm.

Light Emission

Complex interactions govern the Sun-Earth space environment. Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), solar flares, solar wind, and regular solar radiation influence the behavior of Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere is divided into several layers; starting with the troposphere closest to the Earth, the stratosphere where the ozone layer is, followed by the mesosphere and thermosphere. Of particular interest, since the beginning of the space age and the use of orbiting satellites, has been the ionosphere, a layer of partially charged or ionized gas extending in altitude from about 90 km to over 500 km. The thermosphere and ionosphere almost overlap spatially, but the ionosphere can vary temporally, i.e., with time.

The lower ionosphere/thermosphere (90-130 km) represents a critical transition region between the neutral and ionized gas populations; this is where the two gases couple and exchange energy. This is also the region where much external energy is deposited, from above and below, producing heating and instabilities. The thermosphere/ionosphere is coupled energetically, dynamically, and chemically to the mesosphere below and the exosphere above. Atmospheric tides, gravity waves, and planetary waves propagate upward from the mesosphere.

Pressure gradients resulting from temperature differences, with the absorption of solar EUV being the dominant source of heating, influence the region from above.

The ionosphere is created by the ionization of the neutral atoms and molecules of the atmosphere. This electrical charging is the result of the Sun’s ultraviolet light bombarding the atmospheric gas, which is mainly oxygen and nitrogen molecules. The ultraviolet light knocks electrons off the gas molecules, leading to electrically charged particles or ions. Neutral molecules exist alongside the ions. Gases in the troposphere, where life on Earth exists, are neutral, meaning that they are not electrically charged.

In a neutral gas, the number of electrons surrounding the nuclei is the same as the total number of protons in the nuclei. It is difficult to conduct large scale studies of this region, yet characterizing the ionosphere/thermosphere is important for understanding our planet and the space surrounding it.

Changes in the ionosphere caused by variations in solar activity has an impact on everyday life on Earth and in near-space. Solar storms can disrupt the ionosphere and cause communication black-outs. Availability and accuracy of GPS signals are impacted by changes in the ionosphere as are signals from other Earth orbiting satellites.