Auroral Spatial Structures Probe

ASSP is a NASA Sub-orbital rocket mission to study the aurora. It is scheduled to launch from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska during January 2015.

“All or Nothing!” that is what my Dean called it; “Just like the shootout at the OK corral, how exciting.” were her final words to me after I described what I would be doing this January in Alaska. I am the principal investigator for the NASA Auroral Spatial Structures Probe. A 70 foot, 4-stage unmanned rocket loaded with scientific instruments sitting on the launch pad now in Alaska. After 4-year

s of planning, building and testing at NASA Wallops Flight Facility and at the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory it is all coming down to a call, my call, as to when to launch. The aurora borealis is beautiful, awe-inspiring, and far more dynamic and crisp than pictures seem to capture. Those who see it for the very first time often comment on how much it moves in the sky and how detailed the structure of the curtains are and how quickly it can evolve into whole new patterns; They say it is more than they expected. Yet the aurora is not just the pretty lights of what we call “the visible aurora”. There is an unseen structure of voltages and flowing currents in which the visible aurora is embedded and which are not as well understood. The existence of these currents has been detected since antiquity through the slight tremor of magnetic compass needles when the aurora was active. Now we use sub-orbital rockets or satellites flying in or above the aurora to study these invisible voltages and currents. This current NASA mission is a whole new approach to making these types of measurements and has great promise in advancing our understanding of “the invisible aurora” and it relation to those ethereal curtains of light. The rocket is sitting on the launch rail at the Poker Flat Research Range just outside of Fairbanks. Shortly after the fourth stage burns out, six sub-payloads, each about the size of a loaf of bread will be shot a way at high velocity using compressed air canons. This expanding formation of sensors will arc high over the aurora measuring voltages and currents. The whole mission only lasts 14 minutes with about eight of those minutes being prime science collection. After reaching an altitude of 600 km, half again as high as the international space station, the sensors and spent rocket boosters will splash down in Arctic Ocean north of Alaska. The goal is to fly over the aurora somewhere near the north coast. Currently weather conditions in Alaska are poor with a winter storm blocking the views from our ground based cameras. Once the skies clear we will make prediction of what the aurora is likely to do over the next 15 minutes. If there are signatures of the invisible aurora and if the visible auroral arcs are expected to be steady I will call the launch. We only get one shot, and even after using all of our best information and prediction methods there remain elements of chance. The Aurora can completely change, brighten, move, or disappear over a few minutes. Yes, it is a shootout, but a shootout with only one bullet…..maybe tonight, Bang!

Watch A Rocket Blast Off Into An Aurora [Video]

02/13/2015

A follow up article by Sara Fecht at Popular Science.
http://www.popsci.com/watch-aurora-probe-blast-rocket

Watch A Rocket Blast Off Into An Aurora [Video] Science is so pretty

Rocket Into Northern Lights Studies The “Invisible Aurora’s” Electric Currents | IFLScience

02/13/2015

It looks like has been a republication of the story from The Conversation.
http://www.iflscience.com/technology/rocket-northern-lights-studies-invisible-aurora-s-electric-currents

Rocket Into Northern Lights Studies The “Invisible Aurora’s” Electric Currents | IFLScience The aurora borealis lights up the Arctic night skies. Also called the Northern Lights, the phenomenon is the result of beams of charged particles tracing along the Earth’s magnetic field and entering the atmosphere. When they collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, the gases glow green,…

02/06/2015

A new article "Rocket into Northern Lights studies the 'Invisible Aurora's' electric currents" has been published on The Conversation. It is their lead article.

http://theconversation.com/rocket-into-northern-lights-studies-the-invisible-auroras-electric-currents-37005

Rocket into Northern Lights studies the "Invisible Aurora's" electric currents The aurora borealis lights up the Arctic night skies. Also called the Northern Lights, the phenomenon is the result of beams of charged particles tracing along the Earth’s magnetic field and entering the…

NASA Launches Aurora Research Rocket into the Northern Lights - 4K Ultra HD

02/02/2015

Ronn Murray captured this amazing video of the rocket launch and posted it to YouTube. Thank you Ronn for being out on that cold night to film the launch. We appreciate this even more because Ronn had to be out on all of those preceding nights when we did not launch just in case. (http://www.ronnmurrayphoto.com/)

ASSP was a four stage rocket. The first stage is a Talos which burned for 6.4 seconds... then at T+20 the Terrier second stage is ignited.... then at T+40 the Oriole third stage burns for about 30 seconds. The last stage, a Nihka, is ignited at T+87 seconds and leaves the final rocket plume seen it the video. At the end the burns the rocket is at 145 km high and moving mach 8. Shortly there after the six sub-payloads are ejected away and all coast up to 520 km altitude and then splash down in the Arctic Ocean never to be seen again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldZbPSzx7sk

NASA Launches Aurora Research Rocket into the Northern Lights - 4K Ultra HD What a night! What a Rocket! Swenson was amazing to watch! The Swesnon mission saw off an Auroral Spatial Structures Probe (ASSP) rocket carrying 1 main payl...

USU, NASA launch probes into northern lights | KSL.com

02/01/2015

KSL TV did an interview and featured the mission on the local news. I took a red eye flight at 1:00 AM from Fairbanks, Alaska to SLC and tried to get as much sleep as possible. By 10:30 that morning I was in the KSL studio, quite sleep deprived, being interviewed. Look at the results.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1012&sid=33300055

USU, NASA launch probes into northern lights | KSL.com Researchers are getting a look into the aurora borealis unlike any before, thanks to seven small probes that were launched Wednesday.

NASA Sounding Rocket Studies the Invisible Aurora

02/01/2015

The Huffington Post put up a piece. We wrote the first half as a stand alone and then got overwhelmed with post launch events. Jeff Dubois helped by editing together a number of other items written in response to reporters to get this final article.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-swenson/nasa-aurora-sounding-rocket_b_6573550.html

NASA Sounding Rocket Studies the Invisible Aurora The basic idea behind this flight was to launch a rocket into an active aurora and then deploy multiple sensors in mid-flight to do something that's never been done before....

01/29/2015

You can see the rocket erupting from the Styrofoam box at launch. Warm air is blown into the box to keep the rocket at room temperature and protect it from the -44 degree Alaska night cold.

01/29/2015

NASA just provided some launch video. I love the sound!

01/29/2015

Photos taken by professionals of the ASSP launch.

01/28/2015

Another article announcing the mission launch

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/01/28/space-probe-launched-to-study-northern-lights/

Space probe launched to study northern lights NASA and Utah State University successfully launched a probe into the northern lights early on Wednesday.