Keweenaw Rocket Range
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Keweenaw Rocket Range
The Keweenaw Rocket Range is an isolated launch pad located in the U.S. state of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. It was used between 1964 and 1971 for launching rockets for meteorological data collection. NASA, along with the University of Michigan, conducted the project under the lead of Harold Allen. The site was one of six similar sites scattered about North America used to collect measurements of electron density, positive ion composition and distribution, energetic electron precipitation, solar X-rays, and Lyman alpha flux. One of the other well-known sites was Wallops Island, Virginia. The collected data was later to be compared to the five other sites. Smaller rockets In the early stages of the project, smaller rockets were launched off a floating buoy between the on-land rocket site and Manitou Island, about off shore. These smaller rockets were commonly known as Mighty Mouse rockets for they were only a few feet tall and had folding fins. There were approx ...
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Keweenaw Peninsula
The Keweenaw Peninsula ( , sometimes locally ) is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, leading to its moniker of "Copper Country." As of the 2000 census, its population was roughly 43,200. Its major industries are now logging and tourism, as well as jobs related to Michigan Technological University and Finlandia University. Geology The peninsula measures about 150 miles in length and about 50 miles in width at its base. The ancient lava flows of the Keweenaw Peninsula were produced during the Mesoproterozoic Era as a part of the Midcontinent Rift between 1.096 and 1.087 billion years ago. This volcanic activity produced the only strata on Earth where large-scale economically recoverable 97 percent pure native copper is found. Much of the native copper found in the Keweenaw comes in either the form of cavity fillings on lava flow surfaces, which has a ”lacy” cons ...
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Mighty Mouse Rocket
The Mk 4 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket (FFAR), also known as "Mighty Mouse", was an unguided rocket used by United States military aircraft. It was 2.75 inches (70 mm) in diameter. Designed as an air-to-air weapon for interceptor aircraft to shoot down enemy bombers, it primarily saw service as an air-to-surface weapon. The FFAR has been developed into the modern Hydra 70 series, which is still in service. History The advent of jet engines for fighters and bombers posed new problems for interceptors. With closing speeds of 1,500 ft/s (457 m/s) or more for head-on interceptions, the time available for a fighter pilot to successfully target an enemy aircraft and inflict sufficient damage to bring it down was increasingly small. Wartime experience had shown that .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns were not powerful enough to reliably down a bomber, certainly not in a single volley, and heavy autocannons did not have the range or rate of fire to ensure a hit. Ung ...
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Rocket Launch Sites In The United States
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of the atmosphere. Multistage rockets are capable of attaining escape velocity from Earth and therefore can achieve unlimited maximum altitude. Compared with airbreathing engines, rockets are lightweight and powerful and capable of generating large accelerations. To control their flight, rockets rely on momentum, airfoils, auxiliary reaction engines, gimballed thrust, momentum wheels, deflection of the exhaust stream, propellant flow, spin, or gravity. Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th-century China. Signific ...
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Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Michigan Tech is one of the eight research universities in the State of Michigan and is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". There are 12 research areas including Space Sciences, Electronics, Ecosystems, Energy, Health, Ocean Sciences, and Robotics. There are 18 research centers on and off campus including the Michigan Tech Research Institute. The university is governed by an eight-member board of trustees whose members are appointed by the governor of Michigan and confirmed by the Michigan Senate. The university comprises five colleges and schools: the College of Engineering, the College of Computing, the College of Sciences and Arts, the College of Business, and the College of Forest Resources and ...
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Meteorological Rocket Network
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not begin until the 18th century. The 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data. It was not until after the elucidation of the laws of physics, and more particularly in the latter half of the 20th century the development of the computer (allowing for the automated solution of a great many modelling equations) that significant breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved. An important branch of weather forecasting is marine weather forecasting as it relates to maritime and coastal safety, in which weather effects also include atmospheric interactions with large bodies of water. Meteorological pheno ...
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Copper Harbor, Michigan
Copper Harbor is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in Keweenaw County, Michigan, Keweenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located within Grant Township, Keweenaw County, Michigan, Grant Township. The population of the CDP was 136 as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The community is located at the northern tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Copper Harbor is also the northernmost permanently populated community and northernmost point of mainland in the state of Michigan. Due to its natural environment and surroundings, Copper Harbor is marketed as an all-season tourist destination and also contains Fort Wilkins Historic State Park. History Located at the very tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, Keweenaw peninsula, the Copper Country was home to the Ojibwe, Ojibwe people prior to European settlement. In 1836, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula was officially ceded from the Native Americans in the ...
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Keweenaw Rocket Range
The Keweenaw Rocket Range is an isolated launch pad located in the U.S. state of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. It was used between 1964 and 1971 for launching rockets for meteorological data collection. NASA, along with the University of Michigan, conducted the project under the lead of Harold Allen. The site was one of six similar sites scattered about North America used to collect measurements of electron density, positive ion composition and distribution, energetic electron precipitation, solar X-rays, and Lyman alpha flux. One of the other well-known sites was Wallops Island, Virginia. The collected data was later to be compared to the five other sites. Smaller rockets In the early stages of the project, smaller rockets were launched off a floating buoy between the on-land rocket site and Manitou Island, about off shore. These smaller rockets were commonly known as Mighty Mouse rockets for they were only a few feet tall and had folding fins. There were approx ...
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Keweenaw Rocket Range USGS
The Keweenaw Peninsula ( , sometimes locally ) is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, leading to its moniker of " Copper Country." As of the 2000 census, its population was roughly 43,200. Its major industries are now logging and tourism, as well as jobs related to Michigan Technological University and Finlandia University. Geology The peninsula measures about 150 miles in length and about 50 miles in width at its base. The ancient lava flows of the Keweenaw Peninsula were produced during the Mesoproterozoic Era as a part of the Midcontinent Rift between 1.096 and 1.087 billion years ago. This volcanic activity produced the only strata on Earth where large-scale economically recoverable 97 percent pure native copper is found. Much of the native copper found in the Keweenaw comes in either the form of cavity fillings on lava flow surfaces, which has a ”lacy ...
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Nike Apache
The Nike Apache, also known as Argo B-13, was a two-stage sounding rocket developed by Aerolab, later Atlantic Research, for use by the United States Air Force and NASA. It became the standard NASA sounding rocket and was launched over 600 times between 1961 and 1978. Development The TE-307-2 Apache rocket motor was developed by Thiokol as an improvement of its Cajun series of rockets; the Apache was similar in appearance to Cajun, but had an improved propellant that allowed for better performance. Combined with a M5 Nike rocket booster for its first stage by Aerolab,Parsch 2004 the Nike-Apache sounding rocket was capable of lifting of instruments to an apogee of .Corliss 1971, p.82. Operational history The first launch of Nike-Apache was conducted by the United States Air Force on 17 February 1961. Popular due to its low cost (US$6,000) and ability to be fired from many locales, 636 launches were conducted between 1961 and 1978, with the final launch of a Nike-Apache taking pla ...
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Arcas (rocket)
Arcas (originally "All-Purpose Rocket for Collecting Atmospheric Soundings", also designated Big Boy Rocket or "PWN-6") was the designation of an American sounding rocket, developed by the Atlantic Research Corp. (now Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO)), Alexandria, Va. The Arcas sounding rocket is an unguided vehicle with a diameter of 4.5 inches designed to carry payloads of 12 pounds or less to heights in excess of 200,000 feet when launched from sea level.Bruce Bollerman''A Study of 30 km to 200 Km Meteorological Rocket sounding systems,'' Volume 1 Chapter 6.3.2, "Arcas,"' NASA Report CR-1529, May 1970, page 248-258. Retrieved 2018-03-22. It launched between July 31, 1959, and August 9, 1991, at least 421 times. The Arcas has a maximum flight altitude of 52 kilometers, a takeoff thrust of 1.5 kN, a takeoff weight of 34 kilograms, and a diameter of 11 centimeters. The Arcas was 2.30 m long and had a fin span of 0.33 m. History A 1957 Stanford Research Institute study pro ...
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Manitou Island (Lake Superior)
Manitou Island is a small island in Lake Superior, off the northeastern tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of Grant Township, in Keweenaw County. Located approximately three miles from the mainland, it encompasses around . Manitou has seen limited impact from human activity because of its remote location and the often-treacherous waters caused by a strong current at the peninsula's tip. It is mostly forested, with scattered bogs and an inland lake known as "Perch Lake". Dense underbrush can make travel around the island rather difficult, though a few unimproved trails do exist. The Keweenaw Land Trust protects of the island as the Manitou Island Light Station Preserve. History Test pits have been found on the island, hinting at a short-lived past as a possible mining site. Though trees abound, Manitou's remoteness and its lack of quality timber make logging economically unfeasible. Commercial fisherman have used the island as a camping si ...
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NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), to give the U.S. space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. NASA has since led most American space exploration, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968-1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. NASA supports the International Space Station and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the crewed lunar Artemis program, Commercial Crew spacecraft, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management f ...
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