FlaPS and WISPERS

Researchers in the US have developed a tiny analyser to study depletions of plasma (known as plasma bubbles) in the ionosphere, a phenomenon that can disrupt satellite communications.

The Flat Plasma Spectrometer (FlaPS) is one of three experimental payloads onboard the US Air Force Academy’s Falconsat-3 microsatellite that launched recently on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The six-month mission is demonstrating an improved technology to help the air force better understand and forecast plasma bubbles.

Conceived by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Air Force Academy, and designed and fabricated by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), FlaPS reduces a plasma spectrometer from the size of a coffee urn to that of a teacup.

‘We’ve aggressively miniaturised the instrument by applying manufacturing techniques used in the micro-electronics world to build personal computer components,’ said Robert Osiander, APL’s principal investigator for the FlaPS program.