NASA WASP: Planetary scientists gain new observation platform

Scientists used the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP) to precisely point the HyperSpectral Imager for Climate Science during a balloon mission in September. 

Shown here after it landed, the imager collected radiance data for nearly half of its eight-and-a-half hour flight. 

Credit: NASA

Scientists who study Earth, the sun and stars have long used high-altitude scientific balloons to carry their telescopes far into the stratosphere for a better view of their targets.

Not so much for planetary scientists. That's because they needed a highly stable, off-the-shelf-type system that could accurately point their instruments and then track planetary targets as they moved in the solar system. That device now exists.

NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., has designed a new pointing system, the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP), that can point balloon-borne scientific instruments at targets with sub arc-second accuracy and stability.

A planetary scientist—interested in finding less-expensive platforms for observing Jupiter and other extraterrestrial bodies—now plans to test drive the device later this year.

David Stuchlik

"Arc-second pointing is unbelievably precise," said David Stuchlik, the WASP project manager.

"Some compare it to the ability to find and track an object that is the diameter of a dime from two miles away."

WASP is designed to be a highly flexible, standardized system capable of supporting many science payloads, Stuchlik added.

Its development frees scientists, who in the past had to develop their own pointing systems, to instead focus on instrument development.

Given the technology's potential, the WASP team has received NASA Science Mission Directorate funding to further enhance the new capability as a standard support system.

First tested in 2011 and then again in 2012, the most recent test flight occurred from Fort Sumner, N.M., in September 2013.

During that flight, a 30-story balloon lifted an engineering test unit of the HyperSpectral Imager for Climate Science (HySICS) to an altitude of nearly 122,000 feet, far above the majority of Earth's atmosphere.

From this vantage point, WASP precisely pointed HySICS so that it could measure Earth, the sun and the moon.

Developed by Greg Kopp of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the imager collected radiance data for nearly half of its eight-and-a-half hour flight, demonstrating improved techniques for future space-based radiance tests.

Kopp now is preparing his imager for another balloon flight this September.

NOAA GOES-R Satellite: Instrument package to assess space weather ready for delivery

A multimillion dollar University of Colorado Boulder instrument package to study space weather has passed its pre-installation testing and is ready to be incorporated onto a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite for a 2015 launch.

Designed and built by CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the instrument suite known as the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), is the first of four identical packages that will fly on four NOAA weather satellites slated for launch beginning in 2015.

EXIS consists of an Extreme Ultraviolet Sensor (EUVS), an X-Ray sensor (XRS) and a combined EUVS/XRS electronics box (EXEB) to control subsystems and to do command and data handling interface with the GOES-R spacecraft. (Courtesy LASP)

CU-Boulder's EXIS will measure energy output from the sun that can affect satellite operations, telecommunications, GPS navigation and power grids on Earth as part of NOAA's next generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R).

NASA issued the contract with CU-Boulder on behalf of NOAA to design, build, test, deliver and scientifically support the four instrument packages for roughly $95 million, said LASP Senior Research Scientist Frank Eparvier, principal investigator on the project.

The EXIS instrument package will be delivered to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Littleton, Colo., for installation on the spacecraft in the coming months.

"We are excited because we developed and built all new technology for the EXIS instrument package for the GOES-R satellite," said Eparvier.

"We already have a close working relationship with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, and these extremely sensitive instruments should help scientists better understand solar events and help to mitigate the effects of space weather on Earth."

EXIS consists of two LASP instruments, including XRS, an X-ray sensor that can determine the strength of solar flares and provide rapid alerts to scientists, said Eparvier.

Large solar flares, equivalent to the explosion of millions of atomic bombs, can trigger "proton events" that send charged atomic particles flying off the sun and into Earth's atmosphere in just minutes.

They can damage satellites, trigger radio blackouts and even threaten the health of astronauts by penetrating spacecraft shielding, he said.