Interstellar Boundary Explorer
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The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is a NASA satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. The mission is part of NASA's Small Explorer program. IBEX was launched on a Pegasus-XL rocket on October 19 2008, at 17:47:23 GMT[1]. The nominal mission baseline duration will be two years to image the entire solar system boundary.
The mission is being led by the Southwest Research Institute, with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center serving as Co-Investigator institutions responsible for the IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo sensors respectively. Orbital Sciences Corporation will provide the spacecraft bus and will be the location for spacecraft environmental testing.
Payload
The heliospheric boundary of the solar system will be imaged by measuring the location and magnitude of charge-exchange collisions occurring in all directions that will ultimately yield a map of the termination shock of the solar wind. The satellite's payload will consist of two energetic neutral atom (ENA) imagers, IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo. Each of these sensors will consist of a collimator that will limit field of view, a conversion surface to convert neutral hydrogen and oxygen into ions, an electrostatic analyzer to suppress ultraviolet light and select ions of a specific energy range, and a detector to identify particle counts and the identity of each ion. IBEX-Hi will record particle counts at a higher energy band than IBEX-Lo. The payload will also include a Combined Electronics Unit (CEU) that will control the voltages on the collimator and ESA and will read and record data from the particle detectors of each sensor.
Mission parameters
The satellite will be a sun-oriented spinner in a highly-eccentric elliptical Earth orbit, ranging from 5,000 km at perigee to 40–50 Earth radii (roughly 250,000–300,000 km or three-quarters the distance to the moon) at apogee and allowing it to move out of the Earth's magnetosphere when performing science operations. This is critical due to the large degree of interference that would occur while imaging within the magnetosphere. When within the magnetosphere of the Earth (10–12 Earth radii or 70,000 km), the satellite will perform housekeeping operations such as downlink. The spacecraft will use a solid fuel rocket motor as a final boost stage to achieve this orbit.
Launch
IBEX was carried into space 2008-10-19 by a Pegasus XL rocket. The Pegasus was released from a Lockheed L-1011 aircraft that took off from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. The drop occurred at 17:47:23 GMT[1] By launching from a site closer to the equator, the Pegasus lifted as much as 35 pounds (16 kg) more mass to orbit than it would have with a launch from Kennedy Space Center.[2]
IBEX was mated to its Pegasus XL at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and the combined vehicle was then mated to the L-1011 carrier aircraft.[3] The L-1011 arrived at Kwajalein Atoll Sunday, Oct. 12.[4]
References
- ^ a b Ray, Justin (2008-10-19). "Mission Status Center". Pegasus/IBEX Launch Report. Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
- ^ McComas, Dave. "IBEX November 2006". Southwest Research Institute.
- ^ "Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report". NASA KSC. Oct. 3, 2008.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Interstellar Boundary Explorer Mission - Oct. 14, 2008 - Update". NASA.