# National Aeronautics and Space Administration

**Media Kit**

![](media/image1.wmf)

**Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma**

**Spectrometer Satellite**

**(CHIPS) Mission**

## January 08, 2003

### Contents

#### Points of Contact 2

**CHIPS Pre-launch News Release 3**

**Mission Overview 5**

**Science Objectives 7**

**Program/Project Managers 8**

**CHIPS Quick Facts 10**

**Media Services Information 11**

**Photo/Video Information 12**

## Points of Contact

#### Nancy Neal Policy/Program Office PAO (202) 358- 2369

**NASA Headquarters**

**Keith Koehler CHIPS Mission PAO (757) 824-1579**

**NASA Goddard Space Flight Center**

**George Diller Launch Operations PAO (321) 867-2468**

**NASA Kennedy Space Center**

**Mark Hurwitz CHIPS Mission Contact (510) 642-1579**

#### University of California at Berkeley

Nancy Neal

Headquarters, Washington, DC January 8, 2002

(Phone: 202/348-2369)

Keith Koehler

Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.

(Phone: 757/824-1579)

RELEASE: 03-005

#### CHIPS READY TO OPERATE ON \"THE BUBBLE\"

NASA\'s Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite,
scheduled for launch on Jan. 11, will study the gases and dust in space,
which are believed to be

the basic building blocks of stars and planets.

CHIPS will launch aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket at approximately 7:45
p.m. EST from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. It is as a secondary
payload to NASA\'s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat).

The material between the stars is known as the Interstellar Medium (ISM)
and contains important clues about the formation and evolution of
galaxies. The ISM literally contains the seeds of future stars.

When the gas in the ISM cools and collapses, clumps are formed that can
evolve into stars and planets. One of the biggest puzzles in
astrophysics is the process that turns

this diffuse mix of dust, hot and cold gases into stars.

Our solar system is located in a region of space called the \"Local
Bubble,\" which is about 300 light years in diameter. The Bubble is
filled with extremely low-density gas that is much less dense than the
average interstellar medium surrounding it. This gas is extremely hot,
about one million Kelvin (1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit), or about 180
times as hot as the surface of our Sun. The CHIPS mission is studying
this extremely diffuse gas inside the Local Bubble.

\"CHIPS will give us invaluable information into the origin, physical
processes and properties of the hot gas in the nearby interstellar
medium,\" said Dr. Mark Hurwitz, CHIPS principal investigator from the
University of California, Berkeley.

The CHIPS satellite, the first NASA University-Class Explorer (UNEX)
mission, weighs 131 pounds (60 kilograms) and is the size of a large
suitcase. It will orbit the Earth at about 350 miles (590 kilometers)
altitude and is expected to operate for one year.

\"As a UNEX mission, CHIPS was developed primarily as a training device,
but which can obtain actual and valuable science data,\" said Dave
Pierce, NASA CHIPS mission manager from the Goddard Space Flight
Center\'s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. \"The primary
objective of the UNEX Program is to provide the opportunity for training
of young scientists and engineers on a real flight mission. In this
regard CHIPS has been very successful helping to train about 15 young
engineers, \" he said.

The CHIPS mission costs about \$18 million, which includes flight
hardware, integration and launch vehicle, data analysis, and mission
operations.

The Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, sponsors the
project. The project is managed at the Wallops Flight Facility and the
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., through the NASA Explorers
Program. The CHIPS instrument was built at the Space Science Laboratory
of the University of California, Berkeley, and the spacecraft bus was
built by SpaceDev, Inc. of Poway, Calif.

For detailed information about CHIPS and its mission, go to:

[http://chips.ssl.berkeley.edu](http://chips.ssl.berkeley.edu/)

<http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2002/1217chips.html>

<http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/intro.html>

-end-

# CHIPS Mission Overview

The CHIPS mission is studying the very hot, very low-density gas in the
vast spaces between the stars in our local astronomical neighborhood.
The majority of the power radiated by this hot gas occurs in the
short-wavelength, extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic
spectrum, centered around 170 Angstroms (Å). This is a relatively
unsurveyed band and the emissions at this wavelength may contain
important clues about the process of cooling that takes place in the
Local Bubble of the Interstellar Medium.

In our galaxy alone, there are several hundred billion stars. Nearby
stars are easy to see, although most of the stars in the Milky Way are
so distant that their combined light appears as a fuzzy band stretching
across the sky on a clear night. Equally easy to see is the space
between the stars - but how often do you wonder about this space? Most
of us have an idea that these vast spaces are empty, a perfect vacuum.
The material between the stars is known as the Interstellar Medium (ISM)
and contains important clues about the formation and evolution of
galaxies.

The ISM literally contains the seeds of future stars, and all the stars
we see were once formed out of the same kind of diffuse gas and dust.
When the gas in the ISM cools and collapses, the gas forms clumps that
can evolve into stars and planets. Stars, in turn, expel enriched
material back into the ISM as they age. One of the biggest puzzles in
astrophysics is understanding this cyclical process.

Processes that heat the ISM are fairly well understood. Stellar winds
blow through galaxies, transferring huge amounts of energy. Massive
stars explode as supernovae shortly after their formation, stirring and
heating the gas out of which they formed. These injections of energy
from supernovae and stellar winds profoundly affect the ISM and
determine the rate at which new stars form.

#### The Interstellar Medium---What is it?

About 99% of the ISM is gas (hydrogen and helium); the remaining one
percent consists of heavier elements and dust. The gas is extremely
dilute, with an average density of about 1 atom per cubic centimeter.
The air we breathe is approximately 30 quintillion
(30,000,000,000,000,000,000) times more dense than the ISM. Picture
this: an \"empty\" coffee mug in the ISM would contain about 500
hydrogen molecules. The same \"empty\" coffee mug sitting on your desk
contains about 1500 quintillion gas molecules - mostly nitrogen,
hydrogen and oxygen.

The dust in the ISM is made of tiny, irregularly shaped particles of
silicates, carbon, ice and iron. In areas where the dust is thick, the
light from nearby stars can be completely blocked - similar to the way
dark clouds block light from the Sun.

Thinner clouds of interstellar dust may dim the light passing through,
without completely blocking it. This is known as extinction. The
interstellar dust scatters blue light more effectively than red light -
which means that most of the light that reaches us through the
interstellar dust is reddish. This is known as interstellar reddening. A
similar process happens on Earth at sunset - which is why sunsets often
appear red. Light from nearby stars also can be reflected from the
interstellar dust, similar to the way light from a car\'s headlights can
reflect off fog.

Unlike the dust in the interstellar medium, which can only reflect or
block light, the gas in the interstellar medium glows in visible and
many other wavelengths. In the region of hot, newly formed stars, clouds
of hydrogen gas are ionized by the ultraviolet radiation emitted from
the stars. When free electrons recombine with the ionized hydrogen,
visible red light is emitted from the hydrogen gas. This accounts for
the red colors in photographs of emission nebulae, such as the Trifid
and Orion Nebulae.

In the hottest regions of the interstellar medium, hydrogen and helium
are fully ionized, or stripped of their electrons.  Spectral features in
the light emitted by this gas, therefore, originate from heavier
elements.  At one million degrees Kelvin, the brightest spectral
features are predicted to arise from partially ionized iron atoms in the
interstellar medium. CHIPS will be the first mission to search for these
spectral emission features with sufficient sensitivity to detect them
and sufficient resolution to distinguish them from one another.

#### The Local Bubble: our astronomical neighborhood

Our solar system is located in an unusual region of space called the
Local Bubble. The Local Bubble is about 300 light years in diameter and
is filled with extremely low-density gas (about 0.001 gas molecules per
cubic centimeter) - this is much less dense than the average ISM
surrounding it. The coffee mug that would contain about 500 hydrogen
molecules in the ISM would only contain 1 hydrogen molecule (or maybe
none at all!), if it were in the Local Bubble. This gas also is
extremely hot - about one million Kelvin, or almost 200 times as hot as
the surface of the sun! Astronomers believe that a supernova explosion
may have created this bubble - that is, the explosion \"blew\" most of
the gas and dust from the interstellar medium outward. It is this
extremely diffuse gas, inside the Local Bubble, that the CHIPS mission
is studying.

Within the Local Bubble are smaller, denser clouds of interstellar gas. 
Our sun and solar system, along with some other nearby stars, are within
but near the edge of one such cloud that is roughly 20 light-years in
diameter.

# CHIPS Science Objectives

The key questions about the Interstellar Medium that the CHIPS mission
will seek to answer:

-   At what wavelengths does the majority of the power radiated by local
    hot gas emerge?

-   What are the physical processes by which the hot interstellar gas of
    the Local Bubble cools?

-   What is the thermal pressure of hot gas in the Local Bubble?

-   What is the structure and distribution of hot interstellar gas
    within 300 light years of the Sun (the "Local Bubble")?

-   What is the history and evolution of the Local Bubble?

-   How can this knowledge be applied to other diffuse hot plasmas in
    the Universe?

# 

# Program/Project Management

**NASA Management:**

**Office of Space Science**

Associate Administrator for Space Science Dr. Edward Weiler

Director for Astronomy and Physics Dr. Anne Kinney

CHIPS Program Scientist Dr. Philippe Crane

CHIPS Program Executive Steven L. Horowitz

#### Goddard Space Flight Center

Explorers Program Manager Anthony Comberiate

CHIPS Mission Manager David Pierce

CHIPS Project Scientist Dr. Randy Kimble

#### University of California, Berkeley, Project Management:

CHIPS Principal Investigator Dr. Mark Hurwitz, Space Sciences Laboratory

CHIPS Project Manager Dr. Mike Sholl, Space Sciences

Laboratory

**SpaceDev Project Management:**

CHIPS Spacecraft Manager Jeff Janicik

# CHIPS Quick Facts

#### CHIPS Mission

The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite
examines the interstellar medium, the gas and dust that fill the space
between the stars. Just as raindrops split sunlight into the colors of
the rainbow, the CHIPS instrument will collect and separate the diffuse
extreme ultraviolet glow from the interstellar medium. By measuring the
distribution and intensity of the glow, scientists will be able to test
several competing theories about the formation of the clouds of hot
interstellar gas that surround our solar system.

#### Spacecraft Information

**CHIPS** measures 3 feet (1 meter) by 3 feet (1 meter) by 18 inches (.5
meters)

**Spacecraft mass** - 131 pounds (60 kilograms)

**Orbit** - 350 miles (590-kilometer) circular, 94-degree inclination

**Total Power** - 42 watts

**Mission Duration -** 1 year

#### Onboard Memory -- 160 megabytes

**Spacecraft Telemetry --** Up to 16 megabytes/day

**Launch Vehicle -** Boeing Delta II 7320-10C. Additional information
about the launch vehicle can be obtained at:

<http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/delta/delta2/delta2.htm>

**Launch Site -** Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

**CHIPS Deployment --** The CHIPS spacecraft will be deployed from the
Delta II about 83 minutes after launch.

**First Signal Acquisition --** Acquisition will occur no earlier than
about 100 minutes after launch. NASA will issue the initial post-launch
status to media at this time.

**Mission Costs --** Total mission costs are \$18 million for the flight
hardware, integration and launch vehicle, data analysis, and mission
operations.

**Mission Oversight --** CHIPS is the first NASA University-Class
Explorer mission. It is sponsored by the Office of Space Science, NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The project is managed at the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and the Wallops Flight
Facility, Wallops Island, Va., through the NASA Explorers Program.

**Spacecraft and Instrument Development -** The CHIPS instrument was
built at the Space Science Laboratory of the University of California,
Berkeley, and SpaceDev, Inc. of Poway, Calif, built the spacecraft bus.

**Launch Operations** **--** NASA Kennedy Space Center is responsible
for launch operations.

**Spacecraft and Science Operations Centers-** Mission operations will
be conducted from the SpaceDev Poway facility. Instrument commanding and
science operations will be conducted at Berkeley with flow through the
SpaceDev site. CHIPS is the first mission ever to use end-to-end
satellite operations via the Internet.

**Ground Stations --** The primary ground station is located at Berkeley
with secondary ground stations at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility,
Wallops Island, Va., and the University of South Australia, Adelaide.

## Media Services Information

### NASA Launch Coverage and Commentary

NASA TV will provide live coverage and commentary of the CHIPS/ICESat
launch on January 11 beginning at about 6 p.m. EST. The Boeing Delta II
is scheduled to lift off at about 7:45 p.m. EST from Vandenberg Air
Force Base, Calif.

For a live web cast of the launch, go to:
[http://www.ksc.nasa.gov](http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/)

### Pre-Launch Press Briefing

A pre-launch press conference will be held at Vandenberg on January 9
(L-1) at 2 p.m. EST to discuss details of the launch vehicle, the two
spacecraft, and weather forecast for launch day. The briefing will be
carried live on NASA TV.

### News Center/Status Reports

NASA Public Affairs will staff the News Center at Vandenberg beginning
on L-2 and continuing through launch and receipt of the initial signal
from the spacecraft. Recorded status reports will available beginning on
L-2 by dialing 805-734-2693, 301-286-NEWS, or 757-824-2050.

### Media Credentials

Media seeking launch accreditation should fax requests by the close of
business January 8 to:

George Diller, KSC/PAO

NASA Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center, FL

FAX: 805-605-3380

**\*\*\*Requests [must be]{.underline} submitted on the letterhead of
the news organization and specify the editor making the assignment to
cover the launch. Include the full name, birth date and Social Security
Number of the media representative(s).\*\*\***

**Photo/Video Information**

Animations, photographs and video segments are available on the web at:

<http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2002/1217chips.html>

For a CHIPS mission video file that includes spacecraft animation,
interviews with the principal investigator, and spacecraft testing call
Deanna Kekesi at (301) 286-0041.

![](media/image2.jpeg){width="3.3756944444444446in"
height="2.5277777777777777in"}

CHIPS' six apertures for observing the Interstellar

Medium are located just below the small disk in

the center of the forward end. The black

rectangles are solar cells. (Photo UCB)

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="2.6798611111111112in" height="2.75in"}

Location of the CHIPS spacecraft in the DELTA II fairing.