$95M Satellite Project at CU to Help Earthlings Cope with Space Weather

to the small space station in the 1970s. Solar activity caused satellite drag that changed Skylab’s orbit, and in 1979 it crashed back to earth. Few people remember much about the mission itself, but the mystery over where it would crash and pictures of the debris it left after landing in Australia created something of a media spectacle.

Satellite drag remains an issue, but scientists are better at understanding how to offset it and other complications from ionization. For example, GPS system operators can alter signals to correct for changes caused by ionization, Eparvier said.

CU says that in addition to the geostationary contract, LASP is receiving $18 million from NASA for instruments and electronics flying aboard the Van Allen Probes mission launched in 2012 to study Earth’s radiation belts. LASP also designed and built a $32 million instrument for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory that launched in 2010, and designed, built, and operates the $100 million SORCE solar satellite from campus.

 

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Author: Michael Davidson

Michael Davidson is an award-winning journalist whose career as a business reporter has taken him from the garages of aspiring inventors to assembly centers for billion-dollar satellites. Most recently, Michael covered startups, venture capital, IT, cleantech, aerospace, and telecoms for Xconomy and, before that, for the Boulder County Business Report. Before switching to business journalism, Michael covered politics and the Colorado Legislature for the Colorado Springs Gazette and the government, police and crime beats for the Broomfield Enterprise, a paper in suburban Denver. He also worked for the Boulder Daily Camera, and his stories have appeared in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News. Career highlights include an award from the Colorado Press Association, doing barrel rolls in a vintage fighter jet and learning far more about public records than is healthy. Michael started his career as a copy editor for the Colorado Springs Gazette's sports desk. Michael has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan.