AFP-675 (Air Force Program-675) was a

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

experiment package that was carried into orbit on ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...

'' as part of

STS-39 STS-39 was the twelfth mission of the NASA Space Shuttle ''Discovery'', and the 40th orbital shuttle mission overall. The primary purpose of the mission was to conduct a variety of payload experiments for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). ...

. AFP-675 consisted of six experiment packages mounted on a pallet in the ''Discovery's'' cargo bay. The total weight of the package was 5,080 kilograms (11,200 lb). The objectives of the project were: # To obtain data in several wavelength regions to support the development of

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

(DOD) systems # To validate technologies for DOD applications # To validate the use of man as an autonomous experimenter in space # To demonstrate the cost effectiveness of performing DOD experiments on reusable systems.

The experiments

Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle

The Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle (CIRRIS 1A) experiment was designed to measure the spectral, spatial, and temporal properties of the Earth's limb (edge). The primary instruments in this experiment were a Michelson spatial interferometer and a spatial radiometer. Infrared radiation was collected through a cryogenically cooled telescope that was controlled from the flight deck. The

principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

(PI) for the instrument was Dr. Robert R. O'Neil of the Phillips Laboratory.

Far Ultraviolet Cameras

The Far Ultraviolet Cameras experiment was to capture imagery and

photometry Photometry can refer to: * Photometry (optics), the science of measurement of visible light in terms of its perceived brightness to human vision * Photometry (astronomy), the measurement of the flux or intensity of an astronomical object's electro ...

of naturally occurring and man-made emission phenomena such as

airglow Airglow (also called nightglow) is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky never to be completely dark, even after the effects of starlight and diffu ...

and diffuse aurora. Secondary missions were to study interplanetary and interstellar objects (such as comets and stars) and to make

atmospheric density The density of air or atmospheric density, denoted '' ρ'', is the mass per unit volume of Earth's atmosphere. Air density, like air pressure, decreases with increasing altitude. It also changes with variation in atmospheric pressure, temperature a ...

measurements by stellar

occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...

s. The instrument consisted of two imaging cameras and a low-light-level TV camera mounted on the same base. Like CIRRIS, they were controlled from the flight deck. Dr. George R. Carruthers, then working for the

United States Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

, was the PI for this experiment.

Uniformly Redundant Array

The Uniformly Redundant Array conducted a technology demonstration of

coded aperture Coded apertures or coded-aperture masks are grids, gratings, or other patterns of materials opaque to various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The wavelengths are usually high-energy radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays. By blocking ra ...

imaging in space and the capability to form images without stabilization. The instrument was a wide field-of-view, photon-counting imaging device. Edward E. Fenimore of the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

was PI for this experiment.

Gamma Ray Advanced Detector

GRAD was another technology demonstration program to test the suitability of bismuth germanate in gamma-ray detectors, the suitability of n-type, high-purity germanium gamma-ray detectors for space, the performance of an advanced gamma-ray spectrometer and to study the gamma ray background around the shuttle, as well as the gamma-ray spectrum of the sun and the

Galactic Center The Galactic Center or Galactic Centre is the rotational center, the barycenter, of the Milky Way galaxy. Its central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which is called Sagittarius A*, a compact ra ...

. The instrument is non-steerable and is pointed by moving the Shuttle. Dr. C. Rester from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

was the PI.

Horizon Ultraviolet Program

The Horizon Ultraviolet Program (HUP) demonstrated the ability to measure the spatial and spectral characteristics of the Earth's horizon in the vacuum

ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...

wavelength. The sensor was an Ebert-Fastie

spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...

telescope. Francis Leblanc and Robert E. Huffman of the Phillips Laboratory were Principal Investigators.

Quadrupole Ion Neutral Mass Spectrograph

The Quadrupole Ion Neutral Mass Spectrograph was designed to support the CIRRIS 1A experiment by providing positive ion and neutral contaminant species identifications, concentrations, and temporal variabilities. The sensor package was made up of an electron impact ion source, an ion-focusing grid system, a set of quadrupole rods, and an

electron multiplier An electron multiplier is a vacuum-tube structure that multiplies incident charges. In a process called secondary emission, a single electron can, when bombarded on secondary-emissive material, induce emission of roughly 1 to 3 electrons. If an el ...

. Dr. Edmond Tryczinski of Phillips Laboratory was the PI.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Afp-675 Space science experiments