WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. – In a few days, a 60-foot-tall, 1,000-pound rocket will launch from Wallops Island.
What’s the mission? To find out how the upcoming solar eclipse will affect people back on Earth.
“We want to study what kind of disruption small-scale solar eclipses cause to the ionosphere and whether they might interfere with radio communications,” said NASA engineering professor Aro Barjatja. .
Atmospheric perturbations around solar eclipse paths (APEPs) are what scientists like Barjatya have learned from how these events disrupt not only radios, but in some cases GPS systems and other forms of communication. It will help you calculate.
“Small disruptions at that layer can affect wireless communications,” Barjatya said. “For a solar eclipse, we know exactly when and where it’s happening, so we launch three rockets: one 45 minutes before the peak of the local eclipse, and one during the peak of the local eclipse. and another 45 minutes later.”
Total flight time is 10 to 15 minutes, and electrical engineer Scott Heche said sounding rockets are ideal for this mission because they can generate the most accurate data in the shortest amount of time.
“We’re going to have a real-time antenna installed here at the Wallops Flight Facility to monitor the rocket,” Heche said. “The real-time read feeds off the main payload and sub payloads, so nothing needs to be recovered.”
What payload was Heche referring to? These act as mini data collectors. Barjatya said that by emitting in all four directions, scientists would be able to receive a wider range of data.
“One rocket goes up and kicks these four babies out, and they move away a little bit more slowly, but they also go up with their main payload. [it’s] We will get five measurement profiles in one launch,” Barjatja said.
Barjateja said that in an evolving technological society, seizing opportunities like this to conduct further research will bring us one step closer to formulating an action plan.
“As our world becomes increasingly connected, we need to be able to predict when wireless communications will be affected. This doesn’t mean a power outage, but a loss of signal or loss of power.” Barjatya said.
