SRPO Annual Report 2018.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA

Sounding Rockets Annual Report 2018

Giovanni Rosanova Chief, Sounding Rockets Program Office

M es sa g e fr o m t h e

C h ie f

It has been an eventful year for the Sounding Rockets Program, starting with the retirement of the longtime Chief, Phil Eberspeaker and Assistant Chief, Tripp Ransone. They left the program well positioned for a smooth transition by establishing a succession plan well before departing, and I am eternally grateful for their mentor-ship. To complete the transition, I am happy to welcome John Hickman to the position of Assistant Chief. His tenured experience in multiple areas of the Program is invaluable to help guide us into the future.

We have again turned our eyes toward the stars, including the Sun, studied noctilucent cloud formation, flown parachutes for Mars 2020, and inspired hundreds of future scientists and engineers through student flight opportunities.

Missions were flown from our local range on Wallops Island, VA and across the globe, including, White Sands Missile Range, NM, Poker Flat Research Range, AK, and the Marshall Islands. Two rockets staged at the Andoya Space Center in Norway, ready to study neutral winds in the ionosphere, were not launched due unfavorable science and weather conditions. The mission has been re-scheduled for 2019.

Support of scientific discovery, as always, was our primary goal in 2018. Several Astrophysics missions were flown aiming to study features in our galaxy in the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray parts of the spectrum. Two missions, the Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph-4 (CHESS) and Water Recovery X-ray Rocket (WRX-R), launched from the Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, were the first to demonstrate successful recovery of evacu-ated telescope payloads from the water. The Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Spectrograph (DEUCE) and Micro-X, and X-ray microcalorimeter, missions were both launched from White Sands, NM. The Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local galaxy (DXL) launched from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, studied the heliospheric Solar Wind Charge eXchange (SWCX) and Local Hot Bubble (LHB). Instruments to the study the Sun have evolved in the many decades of solar physics missions conducted with sounding rockets, and are now at the forefront of science discovery.

This year’s missions included the High-resolution Coronal Imager

(Hi-C), Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) 3, and EUV Variability Experiment (EVE). FOXSI is the first instrument to detect evidence of X-ray emission from nanoflares on the Sun.

Data from Hi-C will aid in solving the “coronal heating problem”, and EVE, flown for the 7th time, calibrates several EUV imagers onboard NASA and international satellites. Nearer to the Earth, the SuperSoaker mission, launched from Poker Flat Research Range, attempted to create artificial noctilucent clouds.

Sounding rockets supported NASA JPL’s Mars 2020 parachute developement effort with three launches of the Advanced Super-sonic Parachute Inflation Research and Experiments (ASPIRE). The ASPIRE missions all achieved comprehensive success, with all three parachutes recovered successfully off the coast of Wallops Island.

Data from these missions will be used to advance models of super-sonic parachute inflation, and will inform decisions on parachutes selection for future missions to Mars.

STEM enrichment to enhance the capabilities of the nation’s future scientists and engineers has always been one of the main attributes of the Sounding Rockets Program. Students participate in many of the science missions as graduate and undergraduate students under the tutelage of the PIs and Co-Is. Additionally, three dedicated student missions were flown in 2018. First off the pad in March 2018 was the University Student Instrument Program (USIP), a student flight opportunity funded by NASA’s Office of Education and Science Mission Directorate. Four student teams were selected from 47 applications to fly their experiments on a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket. We continued to support the RockOn/ RockSat-C and RockSat-X missions. RockOn saw its 11th flight and RockSat-X, the more advanced opportunity, its 7th. Over 200 University students built experiments for these missions. Younger students participate in RockOn through the Cubes-in-Space program, and create experiments to fly in a self-contained struc-ture inside the nosecone of the RockOn payload. Since 2011, the Wallops Rocketry Academy for Teachers and Students (WRATS) has been conducted by the Sounding Rockets Program. This year, 20 teachers attended the one-week workshop in June and learned about rocketry through hands-on experiments, demonstrations, and flying their own model rocket. Additionally, they attended the RockOn launch on Wallops Island.

New remote campaigns are on the horizon; Marshall Islands and Norway in 2018/2019 and Australia in 2020. The Norway campaign, called the Grand Challenge – CUSP Initiative, involves international partners from both Norway and Japan and is focused on studies of the Cusp region of the Earth’s magnetic field. Seven NASA missions, comprising 11 payloads, will be launched in 2018 and 2019. We are returning to Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, in 2019 to launch two payloads to study the equatorial ionosphere. Four astrophysics payloads are slated for launch from Australia in 2020, allowing scientists access to the southern sky with new opportuni-ties to study targets not otherwise visible.

The first year as Chief of the Sounding Rockets Program has been very rewarding. As a team, we have grown with the successes, as well as the challenges, and look to the future with enthusiasm. It is an honor and a privilege to lead such an accomplished team of tech-nical and professional experts. Together we will continue supporting NASA’s science priorities and develop sounding rocket capabilities to meet the growing science, technology and educational needs of the agency and the nation.

Table of Contents Message from the Chief 2

Sounding Rockets Overview 5 Solar Physics Missions 2018 7

High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) 8 EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) 10 Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager - 3 (FOXSI) 12

Astrophysics Missions 2018 14 Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Spectrograph (DEUCE) 16 Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local galaxy (DXL) 17 Water Recovery X-ray Rocket (WRXR) 19 Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph - 4 (CHESS) 20 Micro-X 22

Geospace Missions 2018 24 Super Soaker 26

Education Missions 2018 28 University Student Instrument Program (USIP) 30 RockOn! & RockSat-C 31 RockSat-X 32

Test and Support Missions 2018 34 Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research and Experiments (ASPIRE) 36

STEM Engagement 39 Wallops Rocketry Academy for Teachers and Students 40 Internships and Outreach 41

Technology Development 43 On the Horizon 49 Charts 54

Mission Success History 54 Sounding Rocket Vehicles 55 Sounding Rocket Vehicle Performance 56 Sounding Rocket Launch Sites 57 Contact Information 58 Sounding Rockets Program Office personnel 59

T e c h n o l o g y

H ig h l ig h t s

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.

TERN Inertial Navigation System

The NSROC developed Tern INS was flown operationally for the first time on 46.021 UO in 2018. The system is designed to generate high quality, reliable body rate and acceleration measurements, attitude propagation, and navigation solutions.

A new low-light camera, Standard Photonics Inc. XR/M-WFF, will replace the Xybion. Imagery from the low-light camera is used to make real-time attitude corrections on celestial attitude based telescope missions.

Low-light Camera

M is s io n s

Integration and testing

Sounding Rockets Overview

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 2018 approximately twenty payloads were integrated and tested for flight.

In f r a s t r u c t u r e

By Discipline 2018

Several next generation instruments and detectors require significant LN2 for cooling prior to launch. In many of the remote launch areas, supply chain logistics makes delivery difficult, expensive, or impractical. To facilitate payload cooling requirements, SRPO invested in a mobile LN2 plant.

The LN2 plant supported launches in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands in March/April 2018 and is planned for use in Svalbard, Norway in Fall 2018 for the Grand Challenge missions, and the Australia 2020 Camapign.

Geo sp ac e

Scie nce

Education r e -im b u r s a b l e

T e c h n o lo g yA s tr o p h y s ic s

21%

27%

Solar Physics

10%

16%

10%

Three Solar Physics mission, High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) 2 and EUV Variability Experiment (EVE), and Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) were flown in 2018.

Hi-C researches the connections between the solar corona and the cooler chromosphere and transition region.

The EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) provided under flight calibration for several NASA and international satellites.

FOXSI studied the solar corona in the X-ray spectrum, at energies at 4 - 20 keV.

Solar Physics Missions 2018

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.

Hard X-rays with energies of 4 - 20 keV emitted by accelerated electrons. Background image slices shows a composite of Hinode, NuSTAR, and

SDO data. 4 - 20 keV

~2 mil 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

E V E

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.

Data from the second FOXSI flight in 2014 overlaid on an image from SDO.

Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager-3

(FOXSI)

FOXSI is designed to investigate “nanoflares,” which are much smaller than large solar flares but which occur far more frequently. These nanoflares may be responsible for coronal heating and also might serve as the seeds for the cascades that result in much larger flares.

Since nanoflares are too small to be observed individually with today’s technology, FOXSI looks for the combined effects of thousands or millions of nanoflares occurring nearly at the same time.

FOXSI

Credit: Multispectral background image NASA/SDO/ GSFC Visualization Studio X-ray background slice from NuSTAR, Hinode and

SDO.

Solar Physics Missions 2018

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 SDO and IRIS 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. Additionally an instrument can be launched at a predetermined time and location, as demonstrated with the EVE mission that coordinated observations with the SDO. This type of coordination can augment and or calibrate satellite research. 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 iron, which in its neutral state has 26 electrons (Fe I), temperatures around 600,000 Kelvin create ions of Fe IX where eight electrons are freed. This process emits EUV radiation at a wavelength of 171 Å.

Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE)

The EVE sounding rocket instrument is used for calibrating a similar instrument onboard the SDO and other spacecraft. The EVE sounding rocket is launched annually to enable correction of the satellite data.

SDO EVE measurement of the He I 584 Å emission is shown in black.

The calibration rocket flights are shown as green squares, and the trend between the last calibration in 2016 to this new one in 2018 provides the correct trend for solar cycle variability.

High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C)

The main objective of the Hi-C 2.1 investigation was to trace the flow of energy and mass between the Sun’s corona and the turbulent lower-layers of the Sun’s atmosphere, the chromosphere and transition region.

A subset of the Hi-C 2.1 field of view of the Sun from the 2018 flight.

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. Amy Winebarger/NASA MSFC• Mission Number(s): 36.342 NS Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM • Launch date: May 29, 2018

The High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) is designed to place significant new limits on theories of coronal heating and dynamics by measuring the structures at size scales relevant to reconnection physics. Hi-C was flown successfully in 2012 and collected the highest resolution (~0.3 arcsec) images of the solar atmosphere, or corona, in a passband sensitive to 1.5 million degree plasma.

The goal of the second flight was to trace the flow of energy and mass between the Sun’s corona and the tur-bulent lower-layers of the Sun’s atmosphere, the chromosphere and transition region. To achieve this goal, the passband of Hi-C was changed to be sensitive to lower temperature plasma (roughly 1 million degrees) and coordination with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) was planned. IRIS images the Sun’s chro-mosphere and transition region at roughly the same resolution as Hi-C. Additionally, the original Hi-C camera was changed to a NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)-developed low-noise camera. As a tradeoff for markedly improved read noise (~10 electrons RMS), the second flight had a smaller field of view (~260 arcsec) due to a reduced detector size (4k x4k to 2k x 2k).

The initial flight in this new configuration (Hi-C 2) was conducted in 2016, but due to an instrument shut-ter failure no scientific data was collected. Another attempt in this configuration was proposed in 2017 and awarded in 2018. On May, 29, 2018, only 3.5 months after Authority to Proceed, Hi-C flew a third time

(called Hi-C 2.1) and successfully collected science data. An example of the Hi-C data is shown in Figure 1.

High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C)

Figure 1. Hi-C 2.1 captured the highest resolution images of the Sun’s 1 million degree atmosphere. A subset of the Hi-C 2.1 field of view is shown.

This data, when combined with supporting data sets, will allow scientists to trace mass and energy through the Sun’s lower atmosphere.

Along with IRIS, several additional satellite and ground-based observatories supported the flight, including

Hinode, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), National Solar Observatory’s Interferometric

BIdimensional Spectrapolarimeter (IBIS), Big Bear Solar Observatory, Owens Valley Radio Observatory, and the Swedish Solar Telescope. Combing these data sets will allow the Hi-C data to be used to address a broad spectrum of science questions far beyond its initial goal.

MSFC/NASA led the mission with partners including the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the Univer-sity of Central Lancashire, and Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysical Laboratory.

Hi-C 2.1 Science Team

Hi-C 2.1 Payload Team

H ig h -r es o lu ti o n

C o r o na l Im ag er h i-C

E U V V ar ia b il it y

E xp er im en t

(E V E

The primary objective for this mission is to provide an underflight calibration for the EUV Variability Experi-ment (EVE) aboard the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. The EVE program provides solar

EUV irradiance (the power per unit area (W/m2) produced by the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation) data for NASA’s Living With the Star (LWS) program, including near real-time data products for use in space weather operations, such as input for atmospheric models that specify the space environment. Physics based solar models are also used to advance the understanding of irradiance variations based on the activity of the solar magnetic features. EVE measures spectral irradiance at wavelengths of 1 - 1216 Å with 1 Å resolution at most wavelengths.

NASA 36.336, with its launch on June 18, 2018, provides the seventh underflight calibration for the EVE aboard the SDO satellite. Prior calibration missions have been flown on May 3, 2010, March 23, 2011, June

23, 2012, October 21, 2013, May 21, 2015 (LV failure), and June 1, 2016. This mission also provided under-flight calibrations for solar EUV imagers aboard SDO, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), NOAA

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), Proba2, Hinode, and for full-disk irradiance instruments aboard Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE), Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere

Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED), Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), and SOHO. These underflight calibration experiments are critical for maintaining high-accuracy, long-term records of the solar

EUV variability as illustrated for the SDO EVE data for the He emission at 584 Å. This shows how much EVE has degraded from its last calibration in 2016 to 2018; that degradation trend (red line) will be corrected in the next EVE data product release using this rocket flight calibration.

EUV Variability Experiment (EVE)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Thomas Woods/University of Colorado Mission Number(s): 36.336 UE Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM - Launch date: June 18, 2018

SDO EVE measurement of the He 584 Å emission is shown in black. The calibration rocket flights are shown as green squares, and the trend between the last calibration in 2016 to this new one in 2018 provides the correct trend for solar cycle variability.

NASA 36.336 also offered the opportunity to fly new technology to provide additional calibrations in other wavelengths. A new instrument, Compact SOLSTICE (CSOL), is a solar FUV-MUV spectrograph (1150-3200

Å) that was developed by the NASA SORCE project. CSOL was added to this flight to provide a final calibra-tion for the SORCE solar ultraviolet spectral irradiance instruments before SORCE will be decommissioned in June 2019. A second new-technology instrument is the next generation solar X-ray spectrometer that is a modified version of the Amptek X123 spectrometer with dual apertures to better measure the solar X-ray range from 1 to 25 Å with higher spectral resolution. This X-ray spectrometer provides calibrations for SDO EVE and is supported by the MinXSS CubeSat project.

This flight was also a historical moment for Greg Ucker, Rick Kohnert, and Tom Woods to celebrate 30 years of calibration rocket flights for solar EUV satellite instruments. Their first calibration rocket NASA 21.101 was de-veloped quickly in August-October 1988 to provide an urgently needed underflight calibration for the German solar EUV instrument aboard the San Marco satellite, and it was a successful flight on November 11, 1988, just in time before San Marco re-entered in December 1988. Since then they have had another 18 solar EUV cali-bration flights over the past three decades with five flown for calibrating TIMED Solar EUV Experiment (SEE) and seven flown for calibrating SDO EVE.

1988, left-to-right: Greg Ucker, Rick Kohnert, Tom Woods, Peter Seidl (German engineer).

2018, left-to-right: Greg, Rick, Tom, and Michael Klapetzky (LASP rocket manager).

Thirty-Year Celebration of Calibrating Solar EUV Satellite Instruments.

E U V V ar ia b il it y

E xp er im en t

(E V

Principal Investigator: Dr. Lindsay Glesener/University of Minnesota • Mission Number(s): 36.325 US Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM • Launch date: September 7, 2018

The outer layer of the Sun (known as the corona) has a temperature of over one million degrees Kelvin (K) while the visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere, is a mere 6,000 deg K. This is not what one would expect from thermodynamics unless some extraordinary energy source continually heats the corona – this phenom-enon is known as the “coronal heating problem.” The mechanisms that heat up and maintain the corona are currently not understood, and solving this mystery will reveal some of the fundamental physics at work in our nearest star. Exploring coronal heating is one of the primary purposes of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Im-ager (FOXSI) experiment.

FOXSI is designed to investigate “nanoflares,” which are much smaller than large solar flares but which occur far more frequently. These nanoflares may be responsible for coronal heating and also might serve as the seeds for the cascades that result in much larger flares. Since nanoflares are too small to be observed individually with today’s technology, FOXSI looks for the combined effects of thousands or millions of nanoflares occurring nearly at the same time. Together, these little bursts of energy can produce superheated plasma and particle acceleration that could be seen by FOXSI. To observe these nanoflare signatures, FOXSI employs focusing optics – a direct, high-sensitivity method only newly available in the hard X-ray regime.

This was the third flight of FOXSI. The first flight in Novem-ber 2012 observed a single flare in progress, resulting in the first-ever focused images of the Sun at hard X-ray energies

(see Krucker et al., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2014).

FOXSI-2, flown in December 2014, detected emission above

7 keV from an active region of the Sun with no obvious individual X-ray flare emission, providing the most direct evi-dence to date of X-ray emission from tiny nanoflare popula-tions (see Ishikawa et al., Nature Astronomy, 2017).

FOXSI-3 flew successfully for a 6-minute observation on

September 7, 2018, and included several new components.

Upgrades included adding more mirrors to the optics mod-ules to increase the collecting area; new fine-pitch CdTe X-ray detectors sensitive to higher energies; and a higher-resolution

Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) 3

The focal plane structure holding 7 X-ray cameras. The thin (square) filters that protect each hard X-ray camera are visible, along with a photocell used for alignment (at left). The soft X-ray camera (at top) has a special, circular filter that is much thinner than the others to allow the transmission of low-energy X-rays.

Front view of the 7 FOXSI-3 optics modules. Note the addition of collimators in front of two modules. These collimators are 3D printed with a fine honeycomb structure to block stray light.Fo c u si ng O pt ic s X -r ay S o la r I m ag er

FO

X S I) optical camera for context. In addition, some entirely new components were debuted: collimators were added before the optics modules to eliminate a source of instrumental background known as “ghost rays,” and a new soft X-ray telescope was included that measures low-energy X-rays with both spatial and spectral resolution.

All systems on the experiment and the rocket performed well during the flight, including the upgrades and the new components. The quickly declining solar cycle did not offer much activity, giving FOXSI-3 a clear shot at measuring nanoflaring activity in the quiet Sun. In addition, a decaying/aged active region presented enough hot plasma for distinct, rich X-ray images and spectra to be made. Data for the decaying region and quiet-Sun targets were successfully obtained from all instruments. Several observatories coordinated with FOXSI-3, in-cluding the NuSTAR, Hinode, and IRIS spacecraft as well as radio and microwave observatories on the ground.

The payload was successfully recovered immediately following the flight, with all systems intact and functional.

Data from this flight are being analyzed and will be presented for the first time at the American Geophysical

Union Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C., in December 2018.

FOXSI-3 is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota, University of California Berkeley, NASA/

Marshall, NASA/Goddard, University of Tokyo/Kavli IPMU, Nagoya University, Tokyo University of Science, JAXA/ISAS, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

More information is available at foxsi.umn.edu.

Fo c u si ng O pt ic s X -r ay S o la r I m ag er

FO

X S I)

The successful recovery of the FOXSI-3 payload

Team photo, including members of the FOXSI-3 experiment team, NSROC teams, and Navy.

El Zorrito - FOXSI team member.

Astrophysics Missions 2018

Hydrogen absorption spectra in visible wavelengths.

Hydrogen emission spectra in visible wavelengths.

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.

Electromagnetic Radiation

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.

High energy and high temperature processes in the Universe radiate in the Ultraviolet (UV) 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. 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. Hard X-rays are very close to gamma-rays. The only difference between them is their source: hard X-rays are produced by accelerating electrons, while Gamma Rays are produced by atomic nuclei.

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. In 2018 four Astrophysics missions, studying various aspects of our Galaxy in the Ultraviolet and X-ray parts of the spectrum, were flown.

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 extract 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.

Micro-X

Micro-X combines a high-energy-resolution X-ray microcalorimeter with an imaging mirror to obtain an imaging X-ray microcalorimeter spectra from an astronomical source. The first flight of Micro-X was designed to investigate the plasma conditions (such as temperature, electron density and ionization) and the velocity structure of the Cassiopeia A Supernova remnant

(SNR).

Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph-4

(CHESS)

CHESS-4 studied translucent clouds in the interstellar medium (ISM) and measured the composition, motion and temperature of this interstellar material in unprecedented detail. CHESS-4 also took a snapshot of the raw materials available that were needed to develop planets, such as, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen.

Water Recovery X-ray Rocket (WRX-R)

The WRX-R mission targeted the Vela Supernova Rem nant (SNR) and measured soft

X-rays emanating from this region. The Vela SNR was created when the core of a star >10 times the mass of the

Sun, collapsed and then exploded as a supernova, the final stage of stellar evolution.

Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Spectrograph (DEUCE)

The Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Experiment (DEUCE) is a spectrograph operating from 650

– 1100Å. DEUCE is designed to measure how much ionizing photons B stars, such as the target star for the 2018 mission β Canis Major, produce.

Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local galaxy (DXL)

DXL studied the heliospheric Solar Wind Charge eXchange (SWCX) and Local Hot Bubble (LHB). This, the third flight of DXL, focused on geocoronal SWCX and X-rays created through interactions with hydrogen.

D u al

-c h an ne l

E xt r em e U lt ra vi o le t C o nt in u u m S pe c tr o g ra p h D E U C

Principal Investigator: Dr. James Green/University of Colorado • Mission Number(s): 36.311 UG Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM • Launch date: October 30, 2017

The Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Experiment (DEUCE) is a spectrograph operating from

650 – 1100 Å. DEUCE was designed to measure how much ionizing photons B stars, such as the target star for this mission β Canis Major, produce.

DEUCE has two modes; a low resolution, high throughput mode operating from 650 – 890 Å, and a high resolution, low throughput channel from 650

– 1100 Å. The stellar brightness changes dramati-cally above 912 Å and below 912 Å and therefore the two modes are necessary. The change in intensity is unknown, and may range from 10/1 to 10,000/1.

DEUCE was designed to measure the flux of local, bright, hot stars that have very little intervening absorbing material in the interstellar medium. Only two such stars exist, β and ε Canis Major.

The target object, β Canis Major, was not acquired due to an Attitude

Control System (ASC) anomaly, and science data was not obtained. All other payload systems operated nominally, including the detector, which re-turned data as expected from an empty target field. Post-recovery testing of the payload shows that all systems continued to function within specifica-tion, and that the optical alignment was maintained through launch and recovery.

A second DEUCE flight, scheduled for December 2018, will target ε Canis

Major. There are no preexisting measurements of the flux of these types of stars in the critical 700 – 900 Å regime, and the fundamental objective of

DEUCE is to understand how bright these types of stars are in the 700 –

900 Å regime.

Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Spectrograph (DEUCE)

DEUCE integration at White Sands Missile Range.

DEUCE team with rocket.

D if fu se

X -r ay e m is si o n fr o m t h e

Lo c al g al ax y

(D X L)

NASA astrophysics research includes studies of our space environment in all wavelengths of the electromag-netic spectrum. Space based instruments are used for studies in the high energy range of the spectrum, such as

X-rays, because these energies are blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere. One such instrument is NASA’s Diffuse

X-Ray emission from the Local galaxy (DXL), which flew onboard a sounding rocket. DXL was launched from

Poker Flat Research Range, AK in January 2018. The mission studied what proportion of X-rays are emitted from the Local Hot Bubble (LHB) versus the Solar Wind

Charge eXchange (SWCX). Data from DXL enhances our understanding of the area of our galaxy close to the Sun, and can be used as a foundation for future models of the galaxy structure.

The DXL mission was designed as a multi-year campaign with a total of three sounding rocket flights. The first flight was designed to quantify the contribution of LHB and SWCX to the soft X-ray background and was launched from White Sands

Missile Range (WSMR), NM in December 2012. The second mission, also from WSMR, was launched in December 2015, while the third launch was in

January 2018 from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. The purpose of the two latter flights is to better understand the nature and characteristics of LHB and SWCX. Flight 2 investigated X-rays created through SWCX interactions with helium. Flight three focused on geocoronal SWCX and X-rays created through interactions with hydrogen.

X-rays in the Universe are created when particles have been energized or raised to high temperatures by gigantic explosions or intense gravitational fields. These conditions exist all around the Universe from neutron stars, black holes, to the

LHB. The LHB is a cavity of very low density hydrogen and hot plasma in our galaxy, thought to have been created by supernovae explosions, between a few hundred thousand and a few million years ago. This very hot plasma (material so hot that electrons are no longer bound to individual nuclei and is electrically conducting) emits soft x-rays. Soft x-rays are categorized as having energy levels below 5 kilo electron Volts, keV.

X-rays are also created as the electrically-charged solar wind comes into contact with a neutral gas. The solar wind can steal electrons from this gas, resulting in an X-ray glow.

In Solar Wind Charge eXchange (SWCX), highly ionized ions, such as O8+ or fully ionized Oxygen, in the solar wind collide with neutral atoms, such as hydrogen, picking up an electron in an excited state. The electron then

Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local galaxy (DXL)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Massimiliano Galeazzi/University of Miami• Mission Number(s): 36.329 UH Launch site: Poker Flat Research Range, AK • Launch date: January 19, 2018

DXL integration at Wallops Flight Facility.

DXL launch from Poker Flat Research Range, AK.

decays producing Ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray emission. The Geocorona is the luminous part of Earth’s exo-sphere. The exosphere is about 1,000 km above the Earth’s surface. SWCX in the Geocorona is produced in the

Magnetosheath, the region where the solar magnetic field collides with the Earth's magnetic field, producing a classical shock in the solar wind. When the solar wind increases, the Magnetosheath moves closer to the Earth, and deeper into the exosphere, producing greater SWCX. The fields at the Earth's magnetic poles guide solar wind ions even deeper into the atmosphere, where the neutral densities are even higher, producing strong, local-ized SWCX. DXL will scan the sky from as close to the cusp as possible at night and down the gradient (i.e. to the part of the Magnetosheath that is faint) to achieve a large a dynamic range from the sheath. The stronger the solar wind the better, as it increases both the absolute strength and the contrast.

DXL’s main instruments were X-ray proportional counters. DXL studies X-rays with energies between 0.1 and 2 keV. Two of the four counters were filled with a gas mixture of 90% argon and 10% methane, while the other two where filled with 100% methane. Incoming X-rays enter the chamber through a window specially coated to let through only particles of certain energies. The incoming particles collide with the atoms inside, ionizing them and producing ion pairs (one electron and one positively charged ion). The electrons produced are attracted to the positive anode of the counter, creating a cascade of additional electrons that then produces a charge on the anode that is measured. The amount of charge is proportional to the energy of the X-rays that entered the detector. During flight, the payload is slowly rotated, pointing the counters toward different parts of the sky and producing spatial maps of the X-ray distribution. As LHB and SWCX emissions have different spatial distribution they can be separated, and studied individually.

D if fu se

X -r ay e m is si o n fr o m t h e

Lo c al g al ax y

(D X L)

DXL mission overview.

W at er R ec o ve ry X

-r ay

R o c ke t (W

R X R

Principal Investigator: Dr. Randall McEntaffer/Penn State University • Mission Number(s): 36.330 UH Launch site: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands • Launch date: April 4, 2018

The WRXR mission, launched from Roi Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, in April 2018 and targeted the Vela Supernova Rem nant (SNR) with a goal of measuring soft X-rays emanating from this region.

The Vela SNR was created when the core of a star

>10 times the mass of the Sun, collapsed and then exploded as a supernova, the final stage of stellar evolution. Supernova explosions are one of the most energetic events in the Universe, and play a role in re cycling material within galaxies. They are respon-sible for the creation and distribution of elements such as, oxygen, silicon, neon, iron, nickel, and mag-nesium among others, into the interstellar medium, thereby providing source material for the next gen-eration of stars, planets, and even organic chemistry.

Evidence of the supernova explosions are left behind as SNRs. Ejected mate rial from the explosion travels at high speeds and the shockwave sweeps up inter-stellar material along the way, continuing to heat it to temperatures as high as 10 million Kelvin. These hot temperatures lead to the emission of high energy electromagnetic radiation, such as X-rays, from the

SNR.

WRXR is sensitive to soft X-rays with an energy range of 0.25 - 0.8 keV focusing on emis sion lines for ions of Oxygen6+, Oxygen7+ and Carbon5+. The data will show how much of each constituent is present, and allow scientists to derive information about the conditions in the Vela SNR such as the tem perature, density, chemical composition, and ioniza tion state. Using these characteristics they will also be able to estimate the shock velocity near the SNR limb, the age and type of the SNR, the energy of the supernova, and the mass of the progenitor.

The mission accomplished many logistical achievements while proving several technologies. This was the first as-tronomical payload to be water recovered at Kwajalein Atoll. This was also the first flight of X-ray hybrid-CMOS detectors and an aligned array of large-format X-ray diffraction gratings. Furthermore, this was the first flight of the water recovery shutter door, sealed telemetry system, sealed Celestial Attitude Control System (CACS), and a new NSROC Forward Ogive Recovery System (N-FORSe) with Iridium/GPS beacons and strobe lights. The payload was successfully recovered and data analysis is ongoing.

Water Recovery X-ray Rocket (WRXR)

WRXR science team in the block house on Roi-Namur following the launch.

WRXR ready for the rail on Roi Namur, Kwajalein Atoll.

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): 36.333 UG Launch site: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands • Launch date: April 16, 2018

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 36.333 UG – France mis-sion launched from Roi Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall

Islands, on April 16, 2018. The CHESS-4 instrument acquired data on sightline to the hot star Gamma Ara. The payload was successfully recovered and comprehensive success was achieved for 36.333 UG.

CHESS was designed to study the interstellar medium (ISM), the matter between stars, and specifically translucent 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 Gamma Ara, in the constellation Ara.

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. For example, molecular hydrogen (H2) has a system of absorption lines near

1100 Å (110 nm). H2 traces cool molecular material (50 –

100 Kelvin), 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 spec trograph will show less energy at wave-lengths near 1100 Å.

Gamma Ara displays an unusually powerful stellar wind;

CHESS studied the interaction of this stellar wind with the surrounding ISM to examine the excitation of atoms and molecules in the inter face region.This allows the CHESS team to investigate the catalysts of Galactic chemistry and the raw materials for future generations of stars and planets, as well as, quantify the temperature and motions of the clouds along the line of sight.

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

Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph - 4 (CHESS)

CHESS-4 science team and payload during integration at Wallops.

CHESS-4 launches from Roi Namur, Kwajalein.

for an ultraviolet spectrograph for the NASA exoplanet/cosmic origins mission concept, Large UV/Optical/IR

Surveyor (LUVOIR), currently under study. The LUVOIR Ultraviolet Multi-Object Spectrograph (LUMOS) is being led by Dr. France's team at the University of Colorado and would address topics ranging from charac-terizing the composition and structure of planet-forming disks to the feedback of matter between galaxies and the intergalactic medium. SISTINE is scheduled for the first flight in 2019 from White Sands Missile Range in

New Mexico, and a second flight from Australia in 2020.

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

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

CHESS-4 flight data from 36.333 UG is shown as the black line. Prominent H2 absorption features are noted with the color tick marks and a spectral synthesis model of the interstellar cloud on the gamma Ara sightline is shown in orange. Echelle order overlap regions are shown in gray and are excluded from the spectral fit. This spectral reduction is courtesy of Nick Kruczek, the lead graduate student on the CHESS-4 mission. This flight data will form a key component of his Ph.D. dissertation research.

M ic r o -X

Principal Investigator: Dr. Enectali Figueroa/Northwestern University • Mission Number(s): 36.245 UH Launch site: White Sands Missile Range, NM • Launch date: July 23, 2018

Micro-X combines a high-energy-resolution X-ray microcalo-rimeter with an imaging mirror to obtain the first imaging X-ray microcalorimeter spectra from an astronomical source. As a photon is absorbed in a microcalorimeter and its energy converted to heat, the resulting temperature rise can be measured by the resistance change of a Transition Edge Sensor (TES). These microcalorimeters need to be cooled to temperatures of about a hundredth of a degree above absolute zero to function properly.

This, the first flight of Micro-X, was designed to investigate the plasma conditions (such as temperature, electron density and ion-ization) and the velocity structure of the Cassiopeia A Supernova remnant (SNR). The high-resolution X-ray spectra (14,000 counts collected in 326 seconds at 6-10 eV resolution across the 0.2 - 2.5 keV band) that Micro-X is developed to measure, will help to ascertain the temperature and ionization state of the X-ray emitting gas in Cas A, as well as study individual bright plasma knots within the remnant.

In addition to performing the first scientific observation with TES microcalorimeters in space, the Micro-X program also aids in the understanding and development of future flight qualified micro-calorimeter systems for larger orbiting missions.

Due to an Attitude Control System anomaly, data from the target

SNR was not received. However, the Micro-X instrument did perform as expected.

Micro-X

Science team working on Micro-X at Wallops Flight Facility.

Micro-X on the vibration table during pre-flight testing.

Micro-X team with 36.245 UH on the launcher.

23Micro-X on the vibration table at NASA GSFC Wallops Flight Facility.

Geospace Missions 2018

Transport, Chemistry, and Energetics of Water in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere and Implications for Polar Mesospheric Cloud Occurrence (aka Super Soaker)

The first two Super Soaker rockets, launched 40-minutes apart, released TMA trails. The trails were tracked optically to measure any changes to the background winds and allow observation of how the upper atmosphere re-sponds dynamically to the injection of water.

The third rocket, launched 30-seconds after the second, dispersed a large payload of wa-ter at 85 km. The water release was measured by the LiDAR.

Three Terrier-Orion sounding rockets were launched from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska in January 2018, as part of the Transport, Chem-istry, and Energetics of Water in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere and Implications for Polar Mesospheric Cloud Occurrence mission, also referred to as the Super Soaker mission.

Ground based instrumentation used for this mis-sion included:

Poker flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR)

Incoherent Scatter Radars measure parameters needed to describe the state and energy balance of the plasma in the ionosphere e.g. electron number density, electron and ion temperatures, bulk ion motion, ion masses, ion-neutral collision frequency.

Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM)

The AMTM is an infrared digital imaging system that measures selected emission lines in the meso-spheric Hydroxyl (OH) (3,1) band (at approxi-mately 1.5 µm) to create intensity and tempera-ture maps of the mesosphere around 87 km.

This Rayleigh LiDAR system measures aerosols and atmospheric temperature and density profiles in the upper atmosphere (?40–100km). For Super Soaker the LiDAR was upgraded with a new beam steering mirror to allow the laser beam to point along the Super Soaker rocket trajectory.

Poker Flat Rayleigh Lidar

Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED)

Aeronomy of Ice (AIM)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Irfan Azeem/ASTRA • Mission Number(s): 41.119, 120 & 122 CE Launch site: Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska • Launch date: January 26, 2018

Three Terrier-Orion sounding rockets were launched from Poker Flat Research Range in

Alaska in January 2018, as part of the Trans-port, Chemistry, and Energetics of Water in the

Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) and Implications for Polar Mesospheric Cloud

Occurrence mission, hereafter referred to as Super

Soaker. The science goal of Super Soaker was to study the impact of a locally concentrated plume of water vapor on temperature and ice cloud formation in the mesosphere and lower thermo-sphere. Water vapor can radiatively cool the MLT region and drive the temperatures down to the water frost point if present in large enough con-centrations. The Super Soaker mission released

200 kg of water vapor at 85 km altitude and then used a coordinated suite of ground-based instruments to measure mesospheric clouds, temperature, and wind changes in response to the water vapor release.

Water ice clouds occurring naturally in the polar summer mesopause region, between 80 and 90 km altitudes

(the coldest part of the Earth’s atmosphere), are called Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC) or Noctilucent Clouds

(NLC). PMC are very sensitive to changes in…