SDL celebrates success following launch
Employees at Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) celebrated the success of the instrument launched in December as its mechanisms were turned on and are operating properly.
SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) was launched into its 388-mile polar orbit aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Dec. 7, 2001. According to the press release, it then had to wait for a routine 30-day engineering checkout before its cryogenic cooler could be activated.
Scott Jensen, SABER thermal systems engineer at SDL, said SABER is the first program at the lab to use a mechanical cryocooler. It will allow the instrument to have a longer mission life than would liquid-based coolers, such as liquid nitrogen or hydrogen ice, he said.
Many were skeptical with the cryocooler because it is a mechanical device and, like any mechanical device, it has the possibility of failing, Jensen said. That is why so many people were cheering when the cryocooler was turned on and began working perfectly, he said.
Allan Steed, director of SDL, said, “We all stood and cheered as we saw excellent atmospheric oxygen emission from the first detector activated. It is gratifying to see it on orbit working spectacularly.”
Jensen said, “SABER has been challenging at times, but seeing it working so beautifully makes everything worth it.”
Lorin Zollinger, project manager at SDL, said SABER took a little more than five years to complete. It was ready for launch in early 2000 but had to wait for another satellite which was being launched on the same rocket, he said.
“It was an excellent project for SDL to be involved with,” Zollinger said. “We had a great working relationship with Jim Miller, the NASA Langley project manager. He and his team of engineers made significant contributions to the development of SABER.”
In conjunction with the NASA Langley Research Center, SDL created the SABER instrument as a component to NASA’s TIMED (Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere-Energetics and Dynamics) mission, according to the press release.
Steve Brown, systems engineer at SDL, said the mission was designed to observe and collect data from the layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere.
“The goal is to get a better understanding of how heat is transferred between Earth’s environment and space,” Brown said. “Scientists have little information about the mesosphere.”
During its two-year mission, SABER will contribute to the program by measuring pressure, temperature, key gases that glow in infrared and effects of solar and chemical heating of the mesosphere, Brown said. Data collected will be used to predict weather and global warming, he said.
Steed said an average of 26 employees worked on the project since the contract was awarded in April of 1995.
The whole laboratory should take great pride in this achievement, Steed said. It would not be possible without engineers, technicians, machinists, designers, management and office and business support, he said.
“We look forward to the significant contributions SABER is beginning to make to enable mankind to better understand globally the Earth’s atmosphere and environment,” Steed said.