CAMEO (Chemically Active Material Ejected in Orbit) was a piggy-back experiment included in the Nimbus-G launch by the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

. The primary objective of the investigation was to study the

magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior dynam ...

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...

interactions by observing the dynamics of neutral (

barium Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. Th ...

) and

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

(

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid el ...

) clouds released at orbital velocities near the earth. It had a mass of approximately 89 kg and consisted basically of batteries, of one lithium and four barium gas canisters. The CAMEO unit remained attached to the second stage of the Delta vehicle. This was the first opportunity to observe the behavior of conventional barium release when conducted at orbital velocity in the near-earth magnetic field.

Method

This investigation consisted of a sequential release of four successive

thermite Thermite () is a pyrotechnic composition of metal powder and metal oxide. When ignited by heat or chemical reaction, thermite undergoes an exothermic reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction. Most varieties are not explosive, but can create brief ...

barium canisters and a single long-duration lithium release from the orbiting second stage of the Nimbus 7 Delta launch vehicle. The barium releases occurred October 29, 1978, along a track north of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

(79N to 74N) and was observed by many ground stations and was tracked from release at around 950 km out to about 5 earth radii during a one-hour period. The lithium release lasted for 50 seconds over southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

on November 6, 1978. Observations of the neutral and ion clouds were observed optically by various ground sites. The principal unexpected characteristic in the release dynamics was the high, 1.4 to 2.6 km/s, initial Ba expansion velocity relative to an expected velocity of 0.9 km/s. Attention was also given to neutral cloud expansion, initial ion cloud expansion, convective motion, and the characteristics of field-aligned motion. The possibility of measuring parallel electric fields over the polar cap by observing perturbations in the motion of the visible ions was assessed.

Conspiracy theories surrounding CAMEO

Because of the lack of thorough documentation and the appearance in a declassifie
document
by the

GAO Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...

, CAMEO has been clumped in with the

chemtrails The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails are "chemtrails" consisting of chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic prope ...

and

HAARP The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) was initiated as an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Ag ...

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

CAMEO Characteristics

{, class="wikitable" , +SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK: VOLUME III, PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS 1969-1978{{cite web , title=SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK: VOLUME III PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS 1969-1978 - table3.91 , url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/vol3/table3.91.htm , website=history.nasa.gov , accessdate=2019-07-08 , Also called: , Chemically Active Material Ejection in Orbit , - , Date of launch (range): , Oct. 24, 1978 (WTR) , - , Launch vehicle: , Delta 2910, launched with

Nimbus 7 Nimbus 7 (also called Nimbus G) was a meteorological satellite. It was the seventh and last in a series of the Nimbus program. Launch Nimbus 7 was launched on October 24, 1978, by a Delta rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Uni ...

, - , Responsible NASA Center: ,

GSFC The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

, - , Project manager: , Ronald K. Browning , - , Project scientist: , James P. Heppner , - , Objectives: , Trace the complexities of the flow of ionized particles in and above earth's ionosphere by observing the flow of released barium. , - , Results: , The contents of four canisters of barium, attached to the second stage of the Delta 2910 launch vehicle, were ejected 950 km above Alaska on Oct. 29, 1978. The contents of one canister of lithium were ejected over Scandinavia on Nov. 6 (in both cases the canisters stayed attached to the Delta stage). The resulting clouds were successfully observed, providing the investigators with information on the movements of electrified natural particles.

References

Explorers Program 1978 in spaceflight

Method

Conspiracy theories surrounding CAMEO

CAMEO Characteristics

See also

References