Here’s a short take on an innovative research program for which several teams of engineers, scientists and astronomers deserve to get an appreciative tip of the hat. It’s a program that ought to get more attention from both the technical and consumer media. I don’t have much space to cover this exciting project but, as usual, Google will soon get you moving in the right direction. In my view, this really is rocket science. Let’s take a look.
Back in mid-June this year, several teams of rocket scientists and engineers working at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) in Pasadena, CA—and sponsored by NASA—successfully launched an orbital x-ray telescope slung under a specially modified Lockheed L-1011 jetliner flying at 39,000 feet. This was truly a low-cost launch, a harbinger, perhaps, of other cost-effective ventures to come.
Known as the NuSTAR satellite (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), the project is intended to peer into black holes and other explosive events in our galaxy and others. This is projected to cost about $170,000 over two years, or about one-tenth of the cost of similar orbital observatories to date.
Sounds easy enough, you might think, but I must repeat, this really is rocket science. The first target for NuSTAR is Cygnus X-1, the black hole nearest to Earth, a mere 6100 light-years away. By the end of June, the NuSTAR was busily sending images to JPL. “Today we obtained the first-ever focused images of the high-energy x-ray universe,” said Fiona Harrison, the mission’s principal investigator at Caltech. Harrison first conceived of NuSTAR about 15 years ago. “It’s like putting on a new pair of glasses and seeing aspects of the world around us clearly for the first time,” she said.
At the time of this writing (in early July), the NuSTAR satellite had successfully extended its 33-foot antenna and JPL scientists were starting to test its array of 133 mirrors. The NuSTAR was expected to begin regular operations by the end of July. If you would like to follow the NuSTAR’s progress, you should Google the satellite or go directly to either the NASA (www.nasa.gov/nustar) or the JPL web sites (www.nustar.caltech.edu/). There are videos and slide shows galore at these sites. While satellite launching is hardly a walk in the park, these videos ooze with confidence in a successful launch.
As I said earlier, NASA and Caltech/JPL deserve credit not only for the conception of NuSTAR but also the management of project teams around the world. If all goes well, NuSTAR will become a model for unmanned research deep into the cosmos. Way to go, NuSTAR people!
By the way, in poking around in the media files for NuSTAR, I came across this lengthy list of collaborative organizations that ought to be given an honorable mention for their participation in the venture.
NuSTAR is a Small Explorer Mission led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, DC. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, based in Dulles, VA. The instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California–Berkeley; Columbia University (New York, NY); NASA’s Goddard Space Flight (Greenbelt, MD); the Danish Technical University (Lyngby, Denmark); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA); and ATK Aerospace Systems (Goleta, CA). NuSTAR will be operated by the University of California–Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya.
I can imagine that keeping so many diverse groups in line across several continents will be no mean feat for Dr. Harrison!