MEDUSSA: Meteoroid and Energetics Detection for Understanding Space Situational Awareness

The focus of this program is to detect and model meteoroid impacts on spacecraft in order to understand the properties of hypervelocity particles and their damage mechanism through both mechanical and electrical effects. The data include both ground-based hypervelocity impact tests, and in-situ impacts of hypervelocity impacts and a modeling component that encompasses electromagnetic emission from dense plasmas. We are currently designing the MEDUSSA spacecraft, which is a CubeSat containing RF, optical and silicon detectors aimed at characterizing the electromagnetic pulse formed upon meteoroid impact.

TALIS: Tomographic Array for Lightning and Ionosphere Studies

The goal of this project is to identify high-density plasma formed in the lower ionosphere due to lightning in order to understand the effects on ground-to-satellite RF communication. In particular, we are deploying co-located lightning and ionospheric arrays in New Mexico in order to understand the mechanism for generating sporadic-E during thunderstorm activity. Our array consists of a suite of lightning ground-based RF receivers at VLF and VHF, and 4 HF transceivers covering 1-30 MHz that allow 6 oblique cuts through the ionosphere. These data are then incorporated into 4-D inversion algorithms that allow for sub-km resolution of the lower ionosphere.

Interplanetary Dust

We are investigating the origins and impacts of interplanetary dust in order to drive the science and engineering missions for the next decade.