# Presentation: 181183

## Space Sciences at Los Alamos National LaboratoryCutting-edge science and technologyto advance the Los Alamos national security mission.

**Space Sciences at Los Alamos National Laboratory***Cutting-edge science and technology**to advance the Los Alamos national security mission.*

## Center for Space Science and Exploration

- Director: Michelle Thomsen
- Focal point for civilian space efforts at LANL
- Promotes scientific excellence in space science and exploration
- Strategically develops major new space capabilities by applying the Laboratory's cutting edge science and technology to the US space programs

## Developing Capabilities to Support the National Security Mission

- Support the capability base for national security programs
- Enhance the scientific credibility of the Laboratory
- Attract and retain top talent and expertise
**CSSE’s 3 Primary Roles:**
- _Liason with NASA HQ, NASA field centers, and DOE:_ Facilitate proposal submission, open and maintain funding pipeline, coordinate with NASA HQ on strategic directions and review panels
- _Serve as a Center for Excellence at the Lab:_** **Sponsor and support conferences and workshops, support new collaborative opportunities (internal and external), LANL/NASA USRP student program, facilitate student and post-doc pipeline, host visitors, sponsor seminars
- _Lead outreach and education activities:_** **Student & teacher programs, robotic workshops, promote LANL space sciences to the public

**Developing Capabilities to Support the National Security Mission**

## Space Sciences at Los Alamos

- Develop new science and technology for the national security mission
- Cutting-edge research: attract and retain top scientists
- Captivating science of high interest to the public

*(Space Science journals only: does not include conference publications; books; or journals such as Science, Nature, Phys. Rev., IEEE, NIM, etc.)*

**Space Sciences at Los Alamos**

## Early Space Exploration at Los Alamos

- 1950s - Developed diagnostic instrumentation for above ground nuclear testing in Pacific
- Late 1950s - Developed instruments for detection of nuclear explosions in the atmosphere (series of ballistic “sounding rocket” instruments)
- 1963 - Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by USA and USSR, Monitoring instruments deployed (Vela program)
- Detected X-rays, gamma rays, neutrons, and plasma
- Both monitoring and scientific contributions: primary mission was nuclear explosion detection but many significant science contributions were made

## Los Alamos in Space: Historical Perspective

**Discovery of gamma ray bursts ****(***Klebesadel et al., 1973)*

**Discovery of heavy ions & high charge states in the solar wind ***(Bame et al., 1968)*

**Discovery of the Earth’s plasma sheet***(Bame et al., 1967)*

- 6 pairs of satellites at 60,000 mile altitude orbits

**Los Alamos in Space: Historical Perspective**

## Supporting Today’s National Security Programs

**Signal propagation **
**& instrument development**

**Performance Analysis**

**Data collection & fusion**

**Supporting Today’s National Security Programs**

## Supporting Today’s National Security Programs

_**Low Altitude NUDET**_
**• ****Optical**
**• ****EMP**

_**Transition Region**_
_**NUDET**_
**• ****Optical**
**• ****Gamma Rays**
**• ****Neutrons**

_**Space NUDET**_
**• ****Gamma Rays**
**• ****Neutrons**
**• ****X-rays**

- 30 km

- 100  km

**Supporting Today’s National Security Programs**

## Supporting Today’s National Security Programs

**Hotspots are**
**70-100 °C**

**Hotter Objects in lower**
**Manhattan appear white or blue**

**Mutispectral Thermal Imager**
*Launched March 12, 2000*

**Advanced image interpretation of MTI imagery:**** **
- GENIE: Genetic algorithm for automated feature extraction
**RED:**** **Hotspots from the WTC attack are red.
**BLUE:**** **Smoke plume is light blue
**GREEN:**** **Smoke plume’s shadow
**WHITE:**** **Debris field from WTC collapse

**Supporting Today’s National Security Programs**

## Supporting Today’s National Security Programs

- Lead for ALEXIS, FORTE (w SNL), CFE
- Partner on MTI (SNL lead, w SRTC)
- Over 100 payloads
- Complete Capability
- Design
- Fabricate
- Test
- Operate

***Satellite Technologies***

**Alexis**

**Supporting Today’s National Security Programs**

## Los Alamos: Unique Capabilities

| Unique Expertise & Capabilities | Los Alamos Applications | Space Science Applications |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Plasma and Nuclear Physics | Weapons research, space situational awareness | Space weather, magnetospheres, solar wind, stellar systems, nucleosynthesis |
| Space Nuclear Power | RTGs, Heat Sources | RTGs, heat sources, space fission reactors for planetary and outer solar system exploration |
| Radiation Detection (neutrons, x-rays, -rays, EMP) | Nonproliferation; exo-atmospheric Nuclear Detonation (Nudet) Detection | GRBs and astrophysical x-ray sources; compositional mapping of planetary bodies |
| Measurement of Fast Transient Events | Nudet detection, weapons testing
 event triggering and GHz sampling | GRBs, transient astrophysical sources, lightning |
| Space Environment Measurements | Space environment characterization for Nudet detection signal integrity | Magnetospheric and heliospheric physics |
| Advanced computing | Weapons research
 Q-Machine will be fastest computer in the world | Advanced modeling and simulation |
| Radiation Effects | Weapons research
 LANSCE: only high-flux spallation source in the world
 MCNP: developed and maintained by Los Alamos | Radiation effects on satellite systems |
| Advanced signal analysis; feature extraction | Image and signal analysis
 Cutting edge genetic algorithms | Data mining, feature extraction |
| Volumetric data reduction | Onboard event triggering; onboard correlations from multiple inputs | Flexible volumetric data reduction; Correlated measurements from multiple instruments |

## Planetary Missions

- What are planets made of?
- How are they different from Earth?
- Why are they different?
- Planet/solar system formation/evolution
- Missions include:
- Cassini (Saturn)
- Lunar Prospector (moon)
- Mars missions (Mars Odyssey, Mars Science Lab)
- Dawn (asteroid Ceres and protoplanet Vesta)

## Cassini CAPS

- Study Saturn and it Earth-like moon Titan
- LANL responsible for two major instruments
- Uses LANL radioisotope heat sources (RTGs)
- Collected new scientific information from Jupiter during several month orbit

- Cassini Plasma Spectrometers
- Last of the NASA big missions
- over $3B total
- Long term mission to Saturn
- launched in 1997, arrived at Saturn 2004, four year mission

## Planetary Neutron and -Ray Spectroscopy: Lunar Prospector

*Epithermal neutrons (counts/32s)*

**Mapping Water on the Moon:**
- Neutrons from cosmic ray spallation are moderated by H
- Presence of H (the signature of water) is observed at the poles and bottom of craters

**Mapping the Elements:**
- Gamma-ray spectra enable global maps of the elements
- Major species: O, Si, Ti, Al, Fe, Mg, and Ca, and radioactive Th, K, and U

*Iron gamma-rays*

- First time neutrons used to image another planet
- Orbital mission lasted 1-1/2 y
- Total cost $63M - including launch vehicle

**Planetary Neutron and ********-Ray Spectroscopy: *****Lunar Prospector***

## Planetary Neutron and -Ray Spectroscopy: Mars Odyssey

- Neutrons from cosmic ray spallation are moderated by H
- Presence of H  (a signature of water) is noted as a low epithermal neutron flux
- Construct spatial maps of concentrations of key elements using ground based data processing equipment

* **Contours are from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter*

**Planetary Neutron and ********-Ray Spectroscopy: *****Mars Odyssey***

## Astrophysics Missions

- Investigate the origin of the universe
- How did the universe form?
- Current missions include:
- ROTSE/RAPTOR
- HETE II
- Swift
- XMM
- Milagro

## Fast Transient Astrophysics: ROTSE and RAPTOR

- ROTSE images of visible light from a gamma ray burst (GRB) on January 23, 1999 after Bepi-SAX alert
- First optical detection of a GRB
- Brightest object ever seen by astronomers

- Two wide-field telescope systems stereoscopically monitoring sky for optical transients, analogous to human vision
- No satellite alerting required
- Central “fovea” cameras provide color, light curve, and higher spatial resolution. Rapid slewing mount places transient on fovea cameras in <3 seconds.

**Robotic Optical Transient**
**Search Experiment (ROTSE)**

**RAPTOR: The ROTSE Follow-on**

**Fast Transient Astrophysics: *****ROTSE and RAPTOR***

## Fast Transient Astrophysics: HETE-II

- Purpose: determine origin and nature of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)
- Co-investigator of the Wide-field X-ray Monitor (WXM) for x-ray study of GRBs
- Launched 2000, became operational on 2/2/01; observed GRB010213 on 2/13/01

**Fast Transient Astrophysics: *****HETE-II***

## Swift

- Purpose: determine origin of GRBs and focus on studying their afterglow
- First of its kind multiwavelength observatory dedicated to the study of gamma ray bursts (GRBs)

- International collaboration: US, UK, Italy, France
- 3 co-aligned instruments: Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), X-ray Telescope (XRT), and UltraViolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT)
- Launched November 2004
- On December 11, 5 GRBs were detected

## X-Ray Multi-Mirror Mission

- European Space Agency cornerstone mission for x-ray astronomy
- Optical Monitor (OM) instrument provides simultaneous optical & UV coverage of x-ray field of view

- Los Alamos part of a team (UCSB and Sandia) that provides the Digital Processing Unit for the OM instrument
- DPU performs on-board data acquisition and processing to maximize scientific output
- Launched December 1999

## Milagro

- Milagro is a large pool of water (about the size of a football field), covered with a light-tight barrier, instrumented with 723 light-sensitive detectors known as photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs).

- Continuously monitors the entire overhead sky in the TeV energy regime; it is uniquely suited to study the transient Universe and to discover new phenomena
- Purpose: to discover new sources of TeV photons, possibly observe TeV emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts, discover primordial black holes, or discover completely new phenomena
- Large collaborative effort

## Solar Wind Missions

- Characterize the solar wind
- Sun Earth connections
- What is the sun made of?
- How did we get here?
- Historical missions include: IMP (1971-2003, first NASA-funded mission at LANL), ISEE (1977-1991)
- Current missions include:
- ACE
- Ulysses
- Genesis
- IBEX

## Understanding Space Weather...from the Sun

** ****Imagers on IMAGE (launched March 2000)**

- ACE and Ulysses: Understanding and monitoring Coronal Mass Ejections  (CMEs) and solar wind transients.

- Low T

- High He

- High B

- Smooth rotation in B

- Bidirectionalelectrons

- CME

**Understanding Space Weather****...from the Sun**

## Interstellar Boundary Explorer

- Purpose: discover the global interaction between solar wind and the insterstellar medium
- Travel outside Earth’s magnetosphere in a highly elliptical, high apogee orbit
- LANL responsible for IBEX Hi instrument
- Launch: 2008

- Major Objectives
- First measurements of interaction region between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium
- Take set of global Energetic Neutral atom (ENA) images (ENA energy spectra are direct measures of solar wind, pickup ions and energetic protons beyond termination shock; above 1 keV, they provide info about how energetic particle pressure modifies termination shock)

## Magnetospheric Missions

- Image the magnetosphere on a global scale
- How do ions/electrons/atoms move about
- How do the magnetosphere and the solar wind interact
- How do the ionosphere and magnetosphere interact
- Effects on the Earth such as the aurora and space weather
- Current missions include:
- Geosynchronous satellites
- IMAGE
- TWINS
- Polar
- Cluster

## Understanding Space Weather...to the Earth

- LANL/DOE geosynchronous data combined with ENA imaging

- MENA/IMAGE, TWINS, and POLAR: Geomagnetic storm evolution viewed by energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging

**Understanding Space Weather****...to the Earth**

## Cluster II

- Purpose:  in-situ investigation of the Earth's magnetosphere using four identical spacecraft simultaneously
- Study the small-scale plasma structures in space and time in the key plasma regions:
- solar wind and bow shock
- Magnetopause
- polar cusp
- magnetotail
- auroral zone

- Novel compact sensor concept relying on set of 3 ion-implanted solid state detectors and pinhole acceptance to measure distributions of both electrons & ions over all angles
- Launched July, August 2000

## Lightning Research

**Missions**
- Testbed for Next Generation Nuclear EMP Sensor Technology.
- Space-based Lightning Detection
**Platform**
- Altitude: 	~ 825 km
- Inclination:  70 degrees
- Launched: 	August 29, 1997
**Instruments**
- Broadband VHF receivers (26-300 MHz, 1 ms resolution)
- Photodiode (15 mS resolution)
- CCD Imager (10 km resolution)

**Lightning Signature: **
**Trans-Ionospheric Pulse Pair (TIPP)**

**Other LANL RF Instruments: Blackbeard/ALEXIS, V-Sensor/GPS**

**Lightning Research**

## Advanced Space Nuclear Power

- Missions to the outer planets and heliosphere; manned missions to Mars
- HPS successfully demonstrated at MSFC with a 25 kWt electric heaters and a 350 We Sterling engine
- “end-to-end” testing with DS-1-type ion thruster at JPL; 250 kWt heaters at MSFC
- Critical role in reactor development for NASA’s Prometheus and Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission

*Also, RTG fuel fabrication, reactor design, particle transport codes.*

**Advanced Space Nuclear Power**

## Los Alamos Space Science Outreach - LASSO

- Summer Teachers’ Workshop
- Robotic workshops
- Classroom activities
- Bradbury Science Museum activities
- Public lectures