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Background: Meteoric Dust Meteoroids enter atmosphere and disintegrate – Up to 100 metric tons of meteoric debris per day Meteoric dust remains mostly in the mesosphere Dust particles remain in the atmosphere for several months – Water freezes around nucleus – Particles descend and increase in size as more water is frozen to the exterior Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI 3 Polar Mesosphere summer echoes (PSME): review of observations and current understandings M. Rapp abd F.-J. Lϋbken Beibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics
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RocketSat VIMeteoric Smoke Particles
June 23, 2010
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
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Mission Overview
• Goal is to characterize atmosphere for amount of meteoric smoke particles– Looking for numerical density/altitude and
charge• Particles are being studied by many
scientists for effects on upper atmosphere– Possible connection to PMCs– Models predicting global shift of these
particles, not proven– Have been measured <10 times
Background: Meteoric Dust• Meteoroids enter
atmosphere and disintegrate– Up to 100 metric tons of
meteoric debris per day• Meteoric dust remains
mostly in the mesosphere• Dust particles remain in the
atmosphere for several months– Water freezes around
nucleus– Particles descend and
increase in size as more water is frozen to the exterior
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
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Polar Mesosphere summer echoes (PSME): review of observations and current understandingsM. Rapp abd F.-J. Lϋbken Beibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Significance of Results
Noctilucent Clouds• Minimum temperatures nearing 140 K allow for
heterogeneous nucleation of ice– Meteoric smoke particles most likely serve as nucleus– Growth to a radius of up to 50 nm
• Particles visible as Noctilucent clouds(NLC)– Also known as polar mesospheric clouds (PMC)
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
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Global Warming•Larger concentrations of methane results in more water vapor•Larger concentrations of carbon dioxide results in cooler temperatures•Cooler temperatures and more water vapor correlate to more ice particles
Credit: NASA/Donald Petit.
Expected Results
• Previous experiments show a higher concentration of these particles in the atmosphere from 75 – 95 km
• Expect similar trends in data but smaller magnitude
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
Particle Detectors • Graphite patch
detectors – detect current– As a particle impacts
the detector, charge is deposited onto graphite and creates a current
• Equation required to convert measured current to numerical density
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
Numerical Density
• I: current– obtained from graphite patch detector
• Seff : effective area of graphite patch detector– = area of patch * sin(angle of attack)– Gyroscopes used to measure position to obtain AOA
• u: velocity of rocket– Using accelerometers to determine velocity
• q: one elementary charge– 1.602×10−19 coulombs
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
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Electrical System• Five electronics boards used to store flight
data– Individual microcontrollers, memory, and power
• CVAs – Current to Voltage Amplifiers– Amplify current signal from detector and convert
to voltage• MEPO – MEsospheric Particle Observation
board– Measures voltage incoming from CVAs
• SCIENCE – measures angular spin rate on pitch, roll, yaw axes
• AVR – collects acceleration data
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
Flight Boards
Science Board MEPO Board
AVR Board
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
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Structure
• Shared canister with Virginia Tech
• Stacked multiple boards on each plate
• Used steel rods around standoffs for ballast
Colorado Space Grant Consortium RocketSat VI
