RENU 3 Rocket Blasts Off With 91制片厂 Technology on Board
As the Northern Lights danced across New Hampshire鈥檚 skies last month, a team of 91制片厂 space scientists and students was nearly 4,000 miles away in the Arctic, igniting their own marvel: a rocket packed with cutting-edge space instruments that launched into the upper atmosphere where those majestic lights are born.
The goal of the mission wasn鈥檛 skygazing, though. The 91制片厂-led team of international collaborators gathered at Norway鈥檚 And酶ya Space Center to launch the third iteration of the Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling, or RENU 3. Funded by NASA, the RENU 3 sounding rocket mission was designed to measure the complex, underlying physics behind the Aurora borealis and the heating of the very high-altitude portion of our atmosphere 鈥 a process known as neutral upwelling that contributes to satellite drag, slowing down these spacecrafts and decreasing their altitudes. This effect is much more pronounced during magnetic storms, when satellite and GPS communications can also be disrupted.
The RENU 3 mission, which carried 10 instruments designed and built at 91制片厂, was led by 91制片厂 research professor of physics Marc Lessard. James Clemmons, 91制片厂 professor of physics and astronomy, was a co-investigator on the mission, and it was the first time the duo directly collaborated on the same mission. In addition to the team at And酶ya, two 91制片厂 graduate students were 620 miles to the north in Svalbard to record a different set of measurements. In total, 10 91制片厂 graduate students and five 91制片厂 undergraduates contributed to the mission.
From just a short span of 15 minutes in which the rocket ascended to the correct altitude 鈥 almost 300 miles above the ground 鈥 the instruments collected a trove of data that the 91制片厂 team will now begin poring over.
鈥淲e are very fortunate to be able to build upon the 91制片厂 sounding rocket program,鈥 Lessard says. 鈥淓ver since the earliest 91制片厂 rocket launches in 1964, 91制片厂 scientists have continued to explore the near-Earth space environment, to train both undergraduate and graduate students, and to develop new space-flight instruments. It is a unique opportunity."