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