Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research organization at the
University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...
. LASP is a research institute with over one hundred research scientists ranging in fields from solar influences, to Earth's and other planetary atmospherics processes, space weather, space plasma and dusty plasma physics. LASP has advanced technical capabilities specializing in designing, building, and operating spacecraft and spacecraft instruments.


History

Founded after World War II, the first scientific instruments built at LASP were launched into space using captured German V-2 rockets. To this day LASP continues a suborbital rocket program through periodic calibration instrument flights from White Sands Missile Range. It was originally called the Upper Air Laboratory, but changed to its current name in 1965. LASP has historical ties to Ball Aerospace Corporation and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA).


Facilities

LASP has two main facilities located in the University of Colorado Boulder Research Park: the LASP Space Technology Research Center (LSTR) and Space Science (SPSC). Two additional facilities - Astrophysical Research Lab (ARL) and Space Learning Lab (SLL/NPL) - are also part of LASP. LASP's new facilities allow it to handle almost every aspect of space missions, itself. Hardware facilities allow for the construction of single instruments or entire
spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...
. A Mission Operations Center allows for the control of spacecraft data collection, and a large research staff analyzes the data. Being part of the University, LASP has heavy student involvement in every aspect of its operations, including science, hardware design / construction and mission operations.


Satellites and instruments

LASP supports the following spacecraft and instruments: *
Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
ultraviolet spectrometer * Cassini-Huygens Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) *
Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was a NASA-operated orbital observatory whose mission was to study the Earth's atmosphere, particularly the protective ozone layer. The satellite was deployed from Space Shuttle Discovery, Space Shu ...
(UARS) Solar/Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) * Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) * Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) * Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) * Quick Scatterometer Mission (QuikSCAT) * TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) Solar EUV Experiment (SEE) *
MESSENGER Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to: People * Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail * Messenger (surname) * Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities * M ...
(Mercury: Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, Ranging) Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) *
New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...
Student Dust Counter (SDC) * Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) *
Kepler Space Observatory The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...
* Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) * Glory Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) * Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) * Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE) CubeSat with REPT integrated little experiment (REPTile) * Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) *
MAVEN MAVEN is a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of that planet's atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution" w ...
- Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission * Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission - MMS * Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat * Total Solar Irradiance Calibration Transfer Experiment (TCTE) * GOES-R Extreme Ultra Violet and X-Ray Irradiance Sensors * Global-scale Observations of Limb and Disk (GOLD), a hosted payload on the SES-14 TV satellite. *
Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...
, Martian orbiter sponsored by the
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
* Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) Interstellar Dust EXperiment (IDEX)


See also

*
National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundat ...
(NCAR) * IDL (programming language)


References


External links


LASP official website

Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmosphere Studies
{{Authority control University of Colorado Boulder