University of Iowa launches first-of-its-kind space probe
The 'TRACERS Spacecraft' was in development for eight years. The university held a launch party for everyone to watch it take off into orbit Wednesday afternoon.
'It's the first of its size and kind that's ever been led by the University of Iowa.' said Associate Professor for the Department of Physics and Astrology Allison Jaynes.
Space always seems far away, but for the University of Iowa it's within reach. The university's physics and astronomy department led a mission with NASA to send up Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS for short. The TRACERS work in a pair and help predict space weather.
'So, we have sort of a shield made of magnetic field around the Earth but some of that energy that comes from the sun in the form of a solar wind gets inside of that shield and we want to know when and where and how much energy gets in,' said Jaynes.
Space weather may not seem like something that affects us on Earth, but it does have an impact on farmers.
'In Iowa specifically we use GPS-guided tractors to do all of our farming for example, and space weather can really mess up that signal, so we're hoping that with technology and missions like this we can better predict that space weather just like we predict terrestrial weather,' said Jaynes.
Students worked alongside experts on the mission, and it was a learning experience for everyone.
'It was definitely intimidating at first but it's also very cool to see the behind-the -cenes of how the team structure works, how we're deciding the data comes down and the communication with NASA and all that, so I feel like I'm learning so much every week,' said graduate student Brendan Powers, who also worked on the space probes.
The mission was successful. The TRACERS were let into orbit and the spaceship landed back on Earth in less than eight minutes.
Jaynes described it as an 'ideal launch.'
The satellites will orbit for about a year before they burn in the atmosphere.
027-David Miles speaks to a community gathering at the Space and Missile Technology Center, a museum commemorating historic rocket launches at Vandenberg.
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