Tiny Plasma Analyzer Now Orbiting Earth

A new U.S. orbiting satellite is carrying a tiny analyzer to study plasma depletions, known as plasma bubbles, that can disrupt communications.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., working with scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the U.S. Air Force Academy, developed the Flat Plasma Spectrometer.

The analyzer is one of three experimental payloads onboard the Air Force Academy’s Falconsat-3 microsatellite that was launched Thursday on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The six-month mission is demonstrating an improved technology to help the Air Force better understand and forecast plasma bubbles.

We’ve aggressively miniaturized the instrument by applying manufacturing techniques used in the micro-electronics world to build personal computer components, said Robert Osiander, APL’s principal investigator for the project. Where we once could only carry one spectrometer per spacecraft, we can now carry dozens.

Falconsat-3 was one of six satellites launched aboard a single rocket as part of the U.S. Defense Department’s Space Test Program-1 mission, the first Air Force mission to use an Atlas V launch vehicle.