The CREX-2 payload was successfully launched at 3:25 a.m. EST on December 1, 2021, from the Andøya Space Center in Norway. The four-stage Oriole IV sounding rocket carried the payload to an apogee of 392 miles.
CREX-2 initially aimed to discover more about the characteristics in the cusp as part of the Grand Challenge Initiative– CUSP in 2019, but although all systems were all set for launch, the mission never got off the ground. Now, after a nearly two-year delay, CREX-2 is as soon as again preparing to fly in hopes of responding to concerns about the cusp.
While the density of Earths atmosphere reduces quickly with height, it remains constant horizontally. That is, at any offered altitude, the atmosphere is approximately the very same density around world.
Other than in the cusp, where 250 miles overhead, theres a pocket of air roughly one and a half times denser than other air at that altitude. “You cant simply increase the mass in a region by an element of 1.5 and do absolutely nothing else, or the sky will fall,” Conde stated. Something unnoticeable assistances that additional mass, and the CREX-2 mission intends to determine exactly what it is.
The objective is created to determine the various factors that could possibly describe how the cusps dense air stays suspended. Conde said, scientists can “arrange and attempt out which one is doing the work.”
One possibility involves electric and magnetic results in the ionosphere, the layer of Earths upper environment that is ionized by the Sun, implying it consists of electrically charged particles. Electrodynamics might support the denser air indirectly, or it might trigger heating that generates vertical winds to keep the thick air up. CREX-2 has an array of instruments created to measure these results.
Another explanation may be that air in the whole vertical column of the cusp is denser than its surroundings. Stacked atop much heavier air, the dense air 250 miles high would stay resilient. Having a column of much heavier air must also produce horizontal or even vortex-like winds, which CREX-2 is designed to look for.
And it will do so in style. The rocket will eject 20 soda can-sized canisters, each with its own small rocket motor, in 4 directions. The cylinders are timed to rupture at various elevations. When they rupture, theyll launch vapor tracers– particles frequently discovered in firework displays which glow by scattering sunlight or upon exposure to oxygen– in a three-dimensional grid in the sky. The wind will paint the sky with these glowing clouds, revealing how air moves in this uncommon area of the atmosphere.
Vibrant clouds formed by the release of vapor tracers from 2 rockets permit scientists to measure winds. Credit: NASA/Lee Wingfield
This element of the objective requires complicated logistics. “Its rather a huge chess game,” Conde stated. The group needs to see these tracers from a number of perspective to get a detailed understanding of the wind patterns. Scientists, a few of them graduate trainees, will be stationed throughout Scandinavia to picture the tracers throughout 20-30 minutes. One student will record them from an aircraft flying from Reykjavík, Iceland, and others will catch the radiances from two sites on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.
There are some “Goldilocks” conditions necessary for launch. The cusp is only present around local midday, however the sky requires to be dark for the tracers radiance to be visible. Thats why CREX-2 will release in mid-winter, when theres very little sunshine at these extreme northern latitudes.
” Were threading a needle,” Conde said. “We get about an hour or 2 every day when conditions appropriate to do the experiment.” And, at least 2 of the stations need a clear view of the tracers for enough data collection. The 2019 launch window was open for 17 days, not one of which was suitable for CREX-2 to fly.
” The rocket business is a high-stakes game,” Conde stated. Conde and the CREX-2 team are excited for another opportunity to launch. “Honestly, it feels incredible,” Conde stated.
Some air in the cusp is unusually dense, and the CREX-2 objective aims to comprehend why. Thats since the air in the cusp is noticeably denser than air somewhere else in the spacecrafts orbits around Earth. CREX-2 initially intended to find out more about the characteristics in the cusp as part of the Grand Challenge Initiative– CUSP in 2019, however although all systems were all set for launch, the objective never got off the ground. Except in the cusp, where 250 miles overhead, theres a pocket of air approximately one and a half times denser than other air at that elevation. Another description may be that air in the whole vertical column of the cusp is denser than its surroundings.
North of Norway over the Norwegian and Greenland Seas, a magnetic bubble referred to as the cusp surrounds Earth and dips inward. Some air in the cusp is uncommonly dense, and the CREX-2 mission aims to understand why. Credit: Andøya Space Center/Trond Abrahamsen
Earths magnetic field guards us from the solar wind, the stream of charged particles spewing off the Sun. The gap in that field, called the polar cusp, permits the solar wind a direct line of access to Earths environment.
When they travel through this part of the radio, sky and gps signals behave oddly. In the last 20 years, researchers and spacecraft operators discovered something else unusual as spacecraft travel through this region: They decrease.
The vapor tracer ampule doors are open on the CREX-2 payload during screening at the Andøya Space. Credit: NASA
” At around 250 miles above Earth, spacecraft feel more drag, sort of like theyve struck a speed bump,” said Mark Conde, a physicist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the primary detective for NASAs Cusp Region Experiment-2, or CREX-2, sounding rocket mission. Thats due to the fact that the air in the cusp is visibly denser than air elsewhere in the spacecrafts orbits around Earth. No one understands why, or how. By comprehending the forces at play in the cusp, researchers hope to better anticipate modifications in spacecraft trajectories.
