Getting closer

Well we had a real countdown today on the Renu rocket. We got to T-2 minutes, and had to hold because the conditions were not quite right. Our rocket is looking at neutral upwelling caused by geomagnetic heating. Basically we are trying to figure out the exact mechanism that causes the heating. Anyway we need geomagnetic heating, and to get that we look at the aurora and the EISCAT radar. We also track the solar wind conditions by looking at data from the Ace satellite. Ace is "upstream" at the L1 Lagrange point, and gives us about 1 hour advanced warning of what is coming. We had a good solar wind today, but the sign of the suns magnetic field was positive, and we need it to be negative. You can see a plot of what we are looking at here. The stength of the Suns magnetic field is measured in nano Tesla, and today the total field strength was ok at about 5 nT (the white line in the top panel). The vertical component of the magnetic field is called Bz, and we need it negative. It was positive all morning, with a brief swing negative just as we had to leave. Basically this results in the aurora being too far to the north for the rocket to get there before we splash down. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

The drvie to KHO

Here is a link to a video shot by Allison Jaynes of our daily drive out to the mine 7. Once we arrive, we change from car to the belt wagon for the rest of the trip up the hill. We have to take a day off today, so we are hoping the winds will subside as we are waiting.

Waiting on the winds

Very windy in Andenes, where the rocket is going to be launched. It is so windy we could not launch again today. There was a small auroral arc to the north of the island we could have just reached, but alas no luck due to winds. Here is a picture of our rocket on the rail It is surrounded by a foam box that they pump heat into to keep the solid rocket motor from cracking. For a sense of scale, you can see two folks by the door to the hanger. The photo was taken by Kolbjorn Dahle of the Andoya Rocket Range.

Svalbard daylight!

This was taken at about 10:30 yesterday. It is a 9 second exposure. About F3.5 You can just barely see a little daylight behind the bandwagon.

Fun in Svalbard

While we were waiting for the LEOS to show up we went dogsledding two days ago. Here is a photo taken by Margit Dyrland, who was our guide. The sleds and dogs belong to her. As protection from wandering polar bears she packs both a flare gun and a Smith and Wessons .460. I guess that would be considered a real revolver!

Electronics part has arrived

Well I have not written much since we have been down for problems with the rocket. Our rocket has four stages, and by the time the rockets third stage is burned out, it is above the atmosphere. To get the most height out of the burn, we toss over all the mass we can. Part of what we toss over is the nose cone. The piece of equipment that does this is called the Lateral Eject Ojive System (LEOS). It has flown on NASA rockets for years with no problems. Of course for reasons known only to the rocket gods, ours decided to pack it in. NASA had to send a new one out from the US to Norway to replace the bad one. Of course the winds were very bad at the rocket range, so planes could not fly in. Brian Hall from NASA brought out the replacement part, and had to take a ferry to get to Andones to deliver the part. I imagine that was quite a ride. Attached is a photo from Steve Powell, who is from Cornell, of the folks looking at the new LEOS when it arrived this morning. NASA has installed the new part, and now we are just waiting for the weather to clear. It was blowing snow hard enough last night that the snow machines were not out, so I got a good nights sleep.

Waiting on the rocket

Well the rocket is having some electronics problems, and they have to send in some parts from the US. We are in waiting mode at the moment. We did not even go up to the observatory yesterday. It was snowing, and we decided we could look at snowflakes from here in town. Here is another picture of town. I was looking over at the one of the old mines, and the town lights are in the background.

Arriving at the observatory

We drive most of the way to the Kjell Henriksen Observatory outside of Longyearbyen in a rental car. We have to park the car by a mine, and then take the belt-wagon up the hill to get to the observatory. The ride is fun--different, but fun.

It is snowing now, so we spent most of the time working in the observatory getting all of our communications set up. Tomorrow I will take the camera up with me and get a picture from the observatory. Photo by Philip Fernandes.

Arrived in Svalbard

I am currently in Svalbard Norway, an island in the Spitzbergen Archipelago. We are up here getting ready to launch a NASA sounding rocket. This view is looking across the valley towards the hills on the far side. This is a 2 second exposure; it is pretty dark unless your eyes are dark adapted. The lights on the right side of the picture are from a coal mine. Our observatory is up the hill from this mine. I am going there for the first time later today, so I will report in on what I find in the next post.

Active again in Norway

I am up in Norway, getting ready to support a NASA sounding rocket launch. Our group at the Air Force Academy made an instrument that is flying on the Renu rocket. You can look here to get a little background on the rocket. I am traveling to Svalbard Island, and when I get there I will post more about our effort.