Cosmic_Hot_Interstellar_Plasma_Spectrometer

CHIPS (satellite)

CHIPS (satellite)

NASA satellite of the Explorer program

CHIPS (Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer, also Explorer 82 or UNEX-2) was a NASA Explorer program satellite. It was launched on 12 January 2003 from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Delta II with the larger satellite ICESat, and had an intended mission duration of one year. CHIPS was the second of NASA's University Explorer (UNEX) mission class. It performed spectroscopy from 90 to 250 Angstrom (9 to 26-nm) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light.[2]

Quick Facts Names, Mission type ...

Mission

The primary objective of the science team, led by principal investigator Mark Hurwitz, was to study the million-degree gas in the local interstellar medium. CHIPS was designed to capture the first spectra of the faint, extreme ultraviolet glow that is expected to be emitted by the hot interstellar gas within about 300 light-years of the Sun, a region often referred to as the Local Bubble. Surprisingly, these measurements produced a null result, with only very faint EUV emissions detected, despite theoretical expectations of much stronger emissions. It was the first U.S. mission to use TCP/IP for end-to-end satellite operations control.

Spacecraft

The University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) served as CHIP's primary ground station and manufactured the CHIPS spectrograph, designed to perform all-sky spectroscopy. Other ground network support was provided by ground stations at Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Virginia and Adelaide, Australia. CHIPS's satellite bus was manufactured by SpaceDev.

Launch

CHIPS (Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer) is a NASA astrophysics spacecraft that was launched by a Delta II launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 00:45:00 UTC on 13 January 2003.[1] The 60 kg (130 lb), triaxially-stabilized spacecraft has a spectrograph covering the 9-26 nm wavelength band at a resolution of 0.1 nm, scanning the entire sky in chunks of 5° x 27° segments during each orbit. The targets are the hot and diffuse nebula at about a million degrees temperature. The band covers several strong emission lines.[3]

Solar observatory

In September 2005, the spacecraft was converted to a solar observatory.[4] From 3 April 2006 to 5 April 2008, CHIPS performed 1458 observations of the Sun.[5]

End of mission

Satellite operations were terminated in 11 April 2008 due to budget constraints.[6]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Trajectory: CHIPS (Explorer 82) 2003-002B". NASA. 28 October 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. [2]
    Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer Archived 2013-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. [3]
    "Display: CHIPS (Explorer 82) 2003-002B". NASA. 28 October 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. [4]
    "CHIPS Latest News". Archived from the original on 18 August 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  5. [5]
    CHIPS Solar Science Archive Archived 2011-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
  6. [6]
    Sanders, Robert (2 June 2008). "06.02.2008 - Low-cost EUV satellite shut down". newsarchive.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 24 January 2024.

Media related to CHIPSat at Wikimedia Commons
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Cosmic_Hot_Interstellar_Plasma_Spectrometer, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.