![]() ![]() Lepri’s colleague, Justin Kasper, is a professor of climate and space sciences and engineering at U-M and a principal investigator for the Parker mission – which measures the solar wind at extreme proximity to the sun. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018 and also carries U-M expertise with it. Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe are really providing our closest views of the sun.” “Then we have a lot of instruments near Earth that are measuring the impact of the solar wind on the Earth’s magnetosphere. ![]() “There’s several of them sitting at the gravitational balance point between the sun and the Earth called L1, the first Lagrangian point,” explains Lepri. A fleet of spacecraft is already out there looking at the sun. Uncertainty is an agonizing component of space launches, but 2020 is certainly ushering in a shiny new era for solar science. ![]() “I have every reason to believe that it will, but I think several of us are just holding our breath a little bit, making sure that it does.” Staring at the Sun “The first thing I’m looking forward to is it launching safely – that’s the honest truth,” admits Raines, associate research scientist in U-M’s Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering department. “I had to call and change my flights today, and was sitting in a hotel lobby – checking if they had any rooms. “I booked my travel plans a while ago when the launch was supposed to be on February 5th,” explains Lepri. For the team - their dreams, aspirations and travel plans are at the mercy of tonight’s fortune.įor Sue and her family in tow, it’s been a day-of scramble. Originally slated for February 5, it has slipped twice on the way to its current, delicate standing. “We were supposed to launch in 2017, and there were some issues and so it was delayed to 2018, and then 2019 – and now we’re here,” says Lepri.” Yet even tonight’s launch window has been elusive. The anticipation of this launch has been amplified by a series of delays. And to think I’m not a tourist right now – I’m one of the scientists that makes this happen.” “It’s just so cool to be at a place that was so awe-inspiring when I was a little kid. “I actually didn’t realize how much it would mean to me to be here with my colleagues, with my advisors,” says Spitzer. Lepri and Raines have been leading its development and are responsible for analyzing the science it will collect on its journey.įor Sarah Spitzer, Lepri’s PhD candidate, the moment is a culmination of emotions. One of its instruments is a critical sensor that analyzes the composition of heavy ions in the solar wind. Waiting on the launch pad atop an United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is Solar Orbiter (SolO), a satellite packed with an unprecedented suite of technology to study the sun. “It’s a very long time to work on a project, more than a solar cycle, and so it’s amazing to be here – it’s just blowing my mind really,” says Lepri, professor of Climate & Space Sciences and Engineering. The audience anxiously anticipates the countdown clock and roaring spectacle it triggers.įor colleagues Sue Lepri and Jim Raines, this moment has been 13 years in the making. In the distance, the stage is set at Space Launch Complex 41. ![]() Busses deliver eager passengers through restricted areas to special viewing locations. On the night of February 9, 2020, an international family of collaborators passes through Kennedy Space Center’s security entrance. ![]()
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