Abstract
NASA’s Endurance sounding rocket (yard No. 47.001) will launch from Ny Ålesund, Svalbard in May 2022 on a solid fueled Oriole III-A launch vehicle. Its \(\sim19\) minute flight will carry it to an altitude of \(\sim780~\text{km}\) above Earth’s sunlit polar cap. Its objective is to make the first measurement of the weak “ambipolar” electric field generated by Earth’s ionosphere. This field is thought to play a critical role in the upwelling and escape of ionospheric ions, and thus potentially in the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere. The results will enable us to determine the importance to ion escape of this previously unmeasured fundamental property of our planet, which will aid in a better understanding of what makes Earth habitable. Endurance will carry six science instruments (with 16 sensors) that will measure the total electrical potential drop below the spacecraft, and the physical parameters required to understand the physics of what generates the ambipolar field. The mission will be supported by simultaneous observations of solar and geomagnetic activity.
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Abbreviations
- ACS:
-
Attitude Control System
- CCMC:
-
NASA Community Coordinated Modeling Center
- DESA:
-
Dual Electrostatic Analyzer
- EISCAT:
-
European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association
- ERU:
-
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
- ETU:
-
Engineering Test Unit
- GSFC:
-
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- IG:
-
Ionization Gauge
- MP:
-
Megapixels
- NASA:
-
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NMS:
-
Neutral Mass Spectrometer
- NSROC:
-
NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract
- PANCAM:
-
Panoramic Camera
- PES:
-
Photoelectron Spectrometer
- REFIMS:
-
Rotating Electric Field Ion Mass Spectrograph
- SLP:
-
Sweeping Langmuir Probe
- SPDF:
-
Space Physics Data Facility
- SRPO:
-
NASA Sounding Rockets Program Office
- UNH:
-
University of New Hampshire
- WFF:
-
NASA Wallops Flight Facility
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Acknowledgements
The Endurance Rocket Mission is funded through NASA’s Heliophysics Technology and Instrument Development for Science (HTIDS) program (grant No. 80NSSC19K1206) and NASA’s Sounding Rocket program. RADAR support for Endurance is funded through the United Kingdom’s contribution to the European Incoherant Scatter (EISCAT) Scientific Association.
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Collinson, G., Glocer, A., Pfaff, R. et al. The Endurance Rocket Mission. Space Sci Rev 218, 39 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00908-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00908-0