in a precision formation (see related story, page 2). LISA will be the first space-based observatory of the space-time ripples called gravitational waves, which are generated by extremely violent events like black hole collisions. “The SLAC is a perfect place for us to build the LISA lasers,” said Anthony Yu, product development lead for the LISA laser. “The LISA lasers have many stringent requirements and we need to set up in-situ test stations to verify the laser performance during the build process. The SLAC allows us to set up specialized test stations for testing the laser in real-time, and also when it undergoes thermal vacuum cycling tests after it is assembled.” Paul Stysley, Goddard’s associate branch head of
laser and electro-optics, and product development lead for the DraMS laser, said the heart and soul of SLAC is in the way it streamlines the technology development and production of lasers. “What makes the SLAC unique is having a centralized location to develop, build and test space-flight laser systems,” Stysley said. “A product flow and infrastructure are in place to develop, environmentally test, and monitor a laser design from cradle to grave for a space-flight mission. This leads to significant reductions of technical risk and cost.” v CONTACT Matthew.W.Mullin@nasa.gov or 301-286-5021
Small Satellite, Big Questions: CuPID CubeSat Provides New Perspectives on the Sun-Earth Boundary One of the CubeSats launched with NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Landsat 9 last month, the Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector, or CuPID is a small spacecraft with a big job. No larger than a loaf of bread nor heavier than a watermelon, CuPID will orbit about 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. From there, CuPID will image the boundary where Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the Sun’s. Produced by Earth’s magnetic field, the magnetosphere is a protective bubble surrounding our planet, said Brian Walsh, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University and CuPID’s principal investigator. “Most of the time, we’re shielded pretty well from the Sun’s activity, as energy and particles from the Sun go around the Earth.” When the Sun gets active, though, its magnetic field can fuse with the Earth’s in a process called magnetic reconnection. Earth’s magnetosphere changes shape and solar radiation and energy comes pouring inward toward us, potentially putting satellites and astronauts in harm’s way. “With CuPID, we want to know what the boundary of Earth’s magnetic field looks like, and understand how and why energy sometimes gets in,” Walsh said. Emil Atz, a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University teamed up with collaborators from Goddard, Boston University, Drexel University, Johns Hopkins University, Merrimack College, Aerospace Corporation, and University of www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology
Photo credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA scientists Michael Collier, David Sibeck, and Scott Porter teamed to develop and demonstrate the first wide-field X-ray camera for studying a poorly understood phenomenon called “charge exchange.”
Alaska, Fairbanks to make CuPID possible. While missions like NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission fly through magnetic
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cuttingedge • goddard’s emerging technologies
Volume 18 • Issue 1 • Fall 2021
