NASA's BARREL Mission in Sweden (28693997613)
The BARREL team prepares to launch their third payload from Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden, on Aug. 21, 2016.
The BARREL team is at Esrange Space Center launching a series of six scientific payloads on miniature scientific balloons. The NASA-funded BARREL – which stands for Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses – primarily measures X-rays in Earth’s atmosphere near the North and South Poles. These X-rays are produced by electrons raining down into the atmosphere from two giant swaths of radiation that surround Earth, called the Van Allen belts. Learning about the radiation near Earth helps us to better protect our satellites.
Several of the BARREL balloons also carry instruments built by undergraduate students to measure the total electron content of Earth’s ionosphere, as well as the low-frequency electromagnetic waves that help to scatter electrons into Earth’s atmosphere. Though about 90 feet in diameter, the BARREL balloons are much smaller than standard football stadium-sized scientific balloons.
This is the fourth campaign for the BARREL mission. BARREL is led by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The undergraduate student instrument team is led by the University of Houston and funded by the Undergraduate Student Instrument Project out of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. For more information on NASA’s scientific balloon program, visit: www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.
Credit: NASA/University of Houston/Michael Greer
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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European Space and Sounding Rocket RangeDie European Space and Sounding Rocket Range ist ein Startplatz für Ballons, Höhenforschungsraketen und orbitalen Trägerraketen in der Nähe von Kiruna in Schweden. Die Esrange ist zudem eine Erdfunkstelle für Satelliten, eine wissenschaftliche Beobachtungsstation und ein Testgelände für Flugkörper. Die Esrange wurde als eine zivile Einrichtung 1964 gegründet und wird seit 1972 von der Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) betrieben. Raketen- und Ballonstarts werden vom Esrange Andøya Special Project (EASP) der ESA koordiniert. Die Esrange ist neben dem Raketenversuchsgelände Vidsel Teil des Versuchsgeländes Vidsel. .. weiterlesen