NASA

NASA Selects ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��'s SUrface Dust Analyzer Instrument for Europa Mission

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2015 23:59:54 +0000

NASA Selects ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��'s SUrface Dust Analyzer Instrument for Europa Mission Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/28/2015 - 17:59

Congratulations to Physics Professors and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics fellow Sascha Kempf, whose proposal for a SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) instrument was selected by NASA to join the upcoming landmark mission to Jupiter's moon, Europa. NASA announced their selection on Tuesday, May 26th. According to NASA, the Europa Mission will investigate whether the icy moon could possibly harbor elements which support life. NASA selected nine scientific instrument proposals that will investigate the moon's magnetic field, the thickness of the moon's icy shell, the thermal makeup of the moon, and many other factors which will point to the possibility of liquid water which may indicate the precursors of life on Europa.

SUDA was one of nine proposals selected by NASA, from 33 proposals from around the world.

The CU-Boulder Team will consist of Sascha Kempf as Principal investigator, and will include physics Professor and LASP fellow Mihaly Horanyi (serving as Co-Investigator), and aerospace engineering Assistant Professor Zoltan Sternovsky. The instrument will be designed and built at LASP.

The instrument, known as SUDA, will directly measure the composition of solid particles released from Europa’s surface due to meteoroid bombardment. SUDA will also be able to measure the properties of small, solid particles believed to be spewing from a hidden ocean within the moon, according to Kempf. Measuring this cloud surrounding Europa will help the SUDA team better understand the moon's interior structure, and the repository of material in the water under the ice crust, according to Kempf.

SUDA will weigh about 24 pounds, much of which will consist of high-tech shielding designed to protect the instrument from radiation, and will be about the size of a lunch box, according to LASP.

NASA’s fiscal year 2016 budget request includes $30 million to formulate a mission to Europa. The mission would send a solar-powered spacecraft into a long, looping orbit around the gas giant Jupiter to perform repeated close flybys of Europa over a three-year period. In total, the mission would perform 45 flybys at altitudes ranging from 16 miles to 1,700 miles (25 kilometers to 2,700 kilometers).

According to NASA, the Europa Mission is set to launch sometime in the 2020s. In the meantime, the SUDA team will begin work in August, 2015.

View the NASA press release.

View the CU-Boulder press release.

View the 9-News (KUSA) story.

View the LASP press release.

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CU-Physics Student Project Launched to International Space Station

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 15:29:38 +0000

CU-Physics Student Project Launched to International Space Station Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/15/2015 - 09:29

University of Colorado Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) experiment was launched by NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX resupply rocket Tuesday afternoon, April 14. The experiment was conceived and built by CU-Physics faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate research students in the CU Soft Materials Research Center. The experiment will be run by NASA astronauts on the ISS.

CU-Physics faculty members Noel Clark, Cheol Park, Matt Glaser, and Joe Maclennan led the project. Four graduate student and seven undergraduates researchers have conducted honors research projects as part of the OASIS project. Undergraduates Markus Atkinson, Aaron Goldfain, Kate Wachs, Kyle Meienberg, Kyle Ferguson, and Kaitlin Parsons helped design, build and test the experiment.

The scientific objectives of the experiment are to study how liquid flows in two dimensional liquid crystals in microgravity in order to explore the interaction and self-assembly of colloidal dispersions of islands and droplets. "OASIS is the first study of smectic liquid crystal materials in microgravity, and may well be the first study of any liquid crystal material in microgravity. Smectic liquid crystal bubbles constitute a unique experimental platform for advancing fundamental understanding of fluid dynamics and colloid physics in two-dimensional systems,” said OASIS Principal Investigator Clark.

Watch Professor Clark explain the OASIS experiment during a prelaunch press conference.

More information about the OASIS Project can be found on NASA's project page.

For more details, view our news release.

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OASIS Project Set To Launch on SpaceX This Afternoon

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 18:17:21 +0000

OASIS Project Set To Launch on SpaceX This Afternoon Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/14/2015 - 12:17

A new experiment by the Liquid Crystal Material Research Center in the Department of Physics is slated to go up to the International Space Station as part of NASA's SpaceX Commercial Resupply Launch this afternoon. The OASIS project will join several ongoing experiments on the space station when it launches today at 4:10 EDT/2:10 MT. The launch was originally scheduled to take place on Monday, April 13th, but called at T-Minus 2:39 due to weather.

Watch Professor Noel Clark describe the OASIS experiment during the Prelaunch Press Conference.

��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� the Project OASIS: Liquid Crystal Bubbles in Space

Be it your health, your cellphone or any one of thousands of other electronic devices, NASA's research on the International Space Station can make a difference. A current experiment looking into fluid dynamics and liquid crystals may lead to benefits both on Earth and in space.

The Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) experiment will study extremely thin film bubbles of liquid crystals in the weightless environment of the International Space Station. The liquid crystal bubbles can be as thin as 6 nanometers, just two molecules in thickness, stabilized by their (smectic) tendency to form molecular layers

OASIS researchers will observe the motion and merging of small hockey puck-shaped liquid crystal layers, known as smectic islands, that move around on the two-layer thick bubble film. The scientific objectives are to study how liquid flows in two dimensions, known as fluid dynamics, and to explore the interactions, self-assembly and coarsening, as well as the dynamics of colloidal dispersions of islands and droplets.

On Earth, as the islands coarsen, or form, into larger sizes or multiple layers, they slide to the bottom of the bubble in the same way as soap bubbles thicken at the bottom. In the microgravity environment of the space station, the islands can be studied without the effects of gravity.

"OASIS is the first study of smectic liquid crystal materials in microgravity, and may well be the first study of any liquid crystal material in microgravity," said OASIS Principal Investigator Professor Noel Clark of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "Smectic liquid crystal bubbles constitute a unique experimental platform for advancing fundamental understanding of fluid dynamics and colloid physics in two-dimensional systems."

OASIS will use the Microgravity Science Glovebox onboard the space station. The Glovebox enables a wide range of experiments in a fully sealed and controlled environment.

While OASIS is focused on basic physical phenomena, the findings may have a long-term impact on technology and human health, as is often the case with basic research.

Most living things either are or once were in a liquid crystal state. All biological liquid crystals are formed by aggregates of molecules in a solvent, like water. Perhaps the most important example of a biological liquid crystal is the cell membrane.

"Since many of the processes critical for the life of the cell take place in the plasma membrane or in the membranes of organelles, the physics of transport, diffusion and aggregation of particles in thin, fluid membranes is of fundamental interest, with clear relevance to the life sciences," said Clark.

Liquid crystals and fluid dynamics are fundamental to many things that touch life here on Earth and in space. A better understanding of how they work provides a better opportunity to improve our lives and our technology.

The OASIS mission is the culmination of almost 20 years of ground-based research in the liquid crystal laboratories of the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Physics research faculty Joe Maclennan and Matthew Glaser are co-PIs on OASIS and senior scientist Cheol Park is the project manager. Since the inception of the smectic bubble project, no fewer than four graduate students (Darren Link, Apichart Pattaporkratana, Duong Nguyen and Zhiyuan Qi) and seven undergraduates enrolled in the Physics honors program (Markus Atkinson, Aaron Goldfain, Kate Wachs, Kyle Meienberg, Kyle Ferguson, and Kaitlin Parsons) have been involved in research related to OASIS.

Recent years have also seen the inclusion of experimental collaborators from the Otto Guericke University in Germany, who will investigate the dynamics and self-organization of fluid droplets inkjetted onto the bubbles in microgravity, and theorists from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

The OASIS experiment will be delivered to the ISS as part of the payload of the sixth SpaceX resupply mission, scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral today. The experiments will be carried out remotely over the course of three months, with occasional astronaut intervention, supervised by the mission scientists and controlled by engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

Microscopic detail of liquid crystal islands tethered like necklaces when an external electric field is applied near the very thin film surface. (Credit: University of Colorado Boulder)

Within minutes the small islands/domains on this very thin bubble prepared in the laboratory form into larger domains and are pulled down by gravity. The bubble film is extremely thin and one cannot see the edges. (Credit: NASA)

Contributions from Noel Clark, Cheol Park, Matt Glaser, and Joe Maclennan at the University of Colorado Boulder and Padetha Tin at NASA Glenn Research Center.

Original images are available on request.

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NASA-MMS Project Launched Thursday, March 12

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 17:04:52 +0000

NASA-MMS Project Launched Thursday, March 12 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/10/2015 - 11:04

Congratulations to the NASA MMS Team, led by CU Physics Professor Marty Goldman who launched the NASA Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission (MMS). The Mission launched from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V rocket on Thursday, March 12.

The MMS Mission will study explosive events in two regions of Earth’s magnetosphere. One is on the day side (“magnetopause") — where solar magnetic field lines run counter to Earth’s compressed dipole magnetic field lines. The other is on the night side (the highly elongated “magnetotail”) where neighboring field lines oppose each other. Opposing magnetic fields can “reconnect,” snapping back over huge distances (many Earth radii), while releasing stored magnetic energy. This “Magnetic Reconnection” energizes particles and produces radiation which can interfere with communications and power grids and endanger spacecraft and aircraft.

For the past seven years Professor Goldman has been Principal Investigator on a 3.3M$ NASA grant providing theory and simulation support for the MMS mission. He and his IDS team (http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov/inter_scientist_team.html) have studied particle heating and motion, nonlinear waves, and energy transport during magnetotail and solar wind reconnection. Goldman’s team consists of simulation and theory experts, Dr. David Newman (Physics) and Prof. Giovanni Lapenta (consultant) as well as LASP observational scientists Dr. Stefan Eriksson, Dr. Laila Andersson and Dr. Jack Gosling.

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NASA

NASA Selects ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������'s SUrface Dust Analyzer Instrument for Europa Mission

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CU-Physics Student Project Launched to International Space Station

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OASIS Project Set To Launch on SpaceX This Afternoon

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NASA-MMS Project Launched Thursday, March 12

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NASA Selects ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��'s SUrface Dust Analyzer Instrument for Europa Mission