NASA Chooses UTD

We flew our first [thermal plasma sensor] in the late sixties. We’ve been doing this for a long time and we are the best in the world at this ... we never in the his-

ANDRÉ AVERION Mercury Staff

N ASA chooses UTD physics professor Philip Anderson to lead a historic investigation to chart Earth’s poorly understood ionosphere-thermosphere.

NASA is calling this ground breaking investigation the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission, and it will explore

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and measure the ionosphere-thermosphere's atmospheric levels spanning across our planet, which has never been done successfully. This dynamic region is home to clashing atmospheric layers, solar events and magnetic storms. Most importantly, it reflects and modifies radio waves and other forms of radiation crucial for modern technology. In order to correctly measure this plasma region,

Anderson — who is also the director of the William B. Hansen Center for Space Sciences at UTD — will be leading the investigation for research on the Thermal Plasma Sensors (TPS), one of five instruments that will be used aboard GDC satellites.

“[TPS] senses the thermal plasma in the

SEE NASA PAGE 9