RAPID: FireStation--Understanding Earth's Most Powerful Natural Particle Accelerator

RAPID：FireStation——了解地球上最强大的天然粒子加速器

• 批准号: 1226525
• 负责人: Allan Weatherwax
• 金额: $ 5.8万
• 依托单位: Siena College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-05-15 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1226525&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; FireStation; Understanding; Earth; Most

The investigators will develop, build, test, and deliver a suite of miniaturized detectors, called Firestation, for optical, radio, and energetic radiation measurements of lightning to be flown on the International Space Station (ISS). The instrument suite is based on the NSF-funded Cubesat Firefly and will be included in a DOD Space Test Program platform on the ISS as part of an experiment, the SpaceCube 2.0, built at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, which is scheduled for delivery to the ISS in 2013. The hardware for FireStation relies heavily on existing flight spares from the Firefly CubeSat, with some modifications needed to interface with Space Cube, rather than the Firefly CubeSat bus. The instrument suite consists of: a sensitive miniaturized radio receiver, a novel so-called phoswich energetic radiation detector, based on an ultrafast inorganic scintillator, and a multi-channel photometer system, including multi-wavelength filters and high speed readouts, providing accurate localization of lightning flashes, as well as accurate timing at high resolution, and multi-wavelength observation. The shared main goal of Firefly and FireStation is to unambiguously determine if Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (TGFs) are produced by lightning, and to determine the characteristics of lightning that produce the fluxes of gamma rays observed at high altitude. This information will strongly constrain the processes that accelerate electrons to ~35 MeV above thunderstorms, since these electrons are thought to be the source of TGFs. TGFs are of inherent interest, as they result from the most powerful natural particle acceleration process on Earth, in which thermal electrons are energized to tens of million electron volts in less than 1 millisecond. These energized electrons create copious bremstrahlung gamma and X-rays, which can be observed from orbiting platforms and the electrons themselves may escape to magnetospheric altitudes and populate the inner electron radiation belt. Undergraduate students at Siena College will be involved in all aspects of the project, from design and development, through fabrication and test, to mission operations and data analysis. Not only will these students get a very rare opportunity for hands-on, end-to-end experience on a real-life space project, they will also get a chance to travel to national meetings to talk about their work on FireStation, and to learn from other scientists and engineers. Students at Siena College and the Universidad Privada Boliviana (Private University of Bolivia) will also work together on deploying a VLF ground station capable of providing location information on lightning events.

研究人员将开发，建造，测试和交付一套小型探测器，称为Firestation，用于在国际空间站（ISS）上飞行的闪电的光学，无线电和高能辐射测量。 该仪器套件基于NSF资助的Cubesat Firefly，并将被纳入国际空间站上的国防部空间测试计划平台，作为实验的一部分，SpaceCube 2.0，在NASA戈达德太空飞行中心建造，计划于2013年交付国际空间站。 FireStation的硬件严重依赖于Firefly CubeSat的现有飞行备件，需要进行一些修改以与Space Cube接口，而不是Firefly CubeSat总线。该仪器套件包括：一个灵敏的微型无线电接收器，一个新型的所谓phoswich高能辐射探测器，基于超快无机闪烁体，和一个多通道光度计系统，包括多波长滤波器和高速读出器，提供闪电的准确定位，以及高分辨率和多波长观测的准确定时。 Firefly和FireStation的共同主要目标是明确确定地面伽马射线闪光（TGFs）是否由闪电产生，并确定在高空观察到的产生伽马射线通量的闪电特征。这些信息将强烈限制将电子加速到雷暴以上约35 MeV的过程，因为这些电子被认为是TGF的来源。TGFs具有固有的兴趣，因为它们是地球上最强大的自然粒子加速过程的结果，其中热电子在不到1毫秒的时间内被激发到数千万电子伏。这些被激发的电子产生大量的轫致辐射伽马射线和X射线，这些射线可以从轨道平台上观察到，电子本身可能会逃逸到磁层高度，并填充内部电子辐射带。 锡耶纳学院的本科生将参与该项目的各个方面，从设计和开发，到制造和测试，再到使命操作和数据分析。这些学生不仅将获得一个非常难得的机会，在现实生活中的太空项目上获得实践，端到端的经验，他们还将有机会前往国家会议，谈论他们在消防站的工作，并向其他科学家和工程师学习。锡耶纳学院和玻利维亚私立大学（玻利维亚私立大学）的学生还将合作部署一个能够提供闪电事件位置信息的甚低频地面站。