[FPSPACE] FW: NASA Spacecraft Ready To Explore Outer Solar System

[LARRY KLAES]

>From: KSC News Center <ksc at newsletters.nasa.gov>
>To: KSC News Center <ksc at newsletters.nasa.gov>
>Subject: NASA Spacecraft Ready To Explore Outer Solar System
>Date: Mon Oct  6 16:15:01 EDT 2008
>
>Oct. 6, 2008
>
>George H. Diller
>Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
>321-867-2468
>george.h.diller at nasa.gov
>
>Dwayne Brown
>Headquarters, Washington
>202-358-1726
>dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov
>
>Nancy Neal Jones
>Goddard Space Flight Center, Md.
>301-286-0039
>nancy.n.jones at nasa.gov
>
>RELEASE: 08-253
>
>NASA SPACECRAFT READY TO EXPLORE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM
>
>GREENBELT, Md. -- The first NASA spacecraft to image and map the
>dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into
>the cold expanse of space is ready for launch Oct. 19. The two-year
>mission will begin from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall
>Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
>
>Called the Interstellar Boundary Explorer or IBEX, the spacecraft will
>conduct extremely high-altitude orbits above Earth to investigate and
>capture images of processes taking place at the farthest reaches of
>the solar system. Known as the interstellar boundary, this region
>marks where the solar system meets interstellar space.
>
>"The interstellar boundary regions are critical because they shield us
>from the vast majority of dangerous galactic cosmic rays, which
>otherwise would penetrate into Earth's orbit and make human
>spaceflight much more dangerous," said David J. McComas, IBEX
>principal investigator and senior executive director of the Space
>Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute
>in San Antonio.
>
>The story of the outer solar system began to unfold when the Voyager 1
>and Voyager 2 spacecrafts left the inner solar system and headed out
>toward the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space.
>
>"The Voyager spacecraft are making fascinating observations of the
>local conditions at two points beyond the termination shock that show
>totally unexpected results and challenge many of our notions about
>this important region," said McComas.
>
>Other spacecraft have continued the exploration of the interstellar
>boundary region. Recently, a pair of NASA sun-focused satellites, the
>Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission, detected a
>higher-energy version of the particles IBEX will observe in the
>heliosphere. The heliosphere is an area that contains the solar wind.
>It stretches from the sun to a distance several times the orbit of
>Pluto.
>
>IBEX is poised to thoroughly map this interstellar boundary region of
>the solar system. The images will allow scientists to understand the
>global interaction between our sun and the galaxy for the very first
>time.
>
>IBEX will be launched aboard a Pegasus rocket dropped from under the
>wing of an L-1011 aircraft flying over the Pacific Ocean. The Pegasus
>will carry the spacecraft approximately 130 miles above Earth and
>place it in orbit.
>
>"What makes the IBEX mission unique is that it has an extra kick
>during launch," said Willis Jenkins, IBEX program executive at NASA
>Headquarters in Washington. "An extra solid-state motor pushes the
>spacecraft further out of low-Earth orbit where the Pegasus launch
>vehicle leaves it."
>
>The IBEX mission is the next in NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly
>developed Small Explorers spacecraft. NASA's Goddard Space Flight
>Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the Explorers Program for NASA's
>Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The mission was developed
>by Southwest Research Institute with national and international
>partner participation.
>
>For more information about IBEX, visit:
>
>http://www.nasa.gov/ibex
>
>
>-end-
>
>
>
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