VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians help guide an overhead crane toward NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft below it. IBEX is undergoing spin balance testing. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from a Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB KSC-08pd2512

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Workers dressed in clean room attire, known as bunny suits, transfer the multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission on its holding base through the doors of the airlock of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) into the facility's high bay. In the high bay, the MMRTG temporarily will be installed on the MSL rover, Curiosity (in the background, at right), for a fit check using the MMRTG integration cart (in the background, at left). The MMRTG will be installed on the rover for launch at the pad. The MMRTG will generate the power needed for the mission from the natural decay of plutonium-238, a non-weapons-grade form of the radioisotope. Heat given off by this natural decay will provide constant power through the day and night during all seasons. Curiosity, MSL's car-sized rover, has 10 science instruments designed to search for signs of life, including methane, and help determine if the gas is from a biological or geological source. Waste heat from the MMRTG will be circulated throughout the rover system to keep instruments, computers, mechanical devices and communications systems within their operating temperature ranges. Launch of MSL aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is planned for Nov. 25 from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston KSC-2011-6685

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VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians help guide an overhead crane toward NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft below it. IBEX is undergoing spin balance testing. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from a Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB KSC-08pd2512

description

Summary

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians help guide an overhead crane toward NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft below it. IBEX is undergoing spin balance testing. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX also will study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth's magnetosphere. IBEX is targeted for launch from a Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 5. Photo credit: NASA/VAFB

date_range

Date

13/08/2008

place

Location

34.75086, -120.52053

create

Source

NASA

link

Link

https://images.nasa.gov/

Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

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