The sounding rocket MUSIC successfully launched on March 1st, 2016. West Virginia University flew multiple payloads including early versions of the Physics and MAE experiments. These flew approximately 115 miles to apogee and included a VLF receiver, particle detector, and the MEMs IMU. Data was received from these experiments and is currently being processed at WVU.
STF-1 has also selected a high-school and multiple college level interns to aid in the mission over the summer. Their goals are to aid in outreach activities by preparing teaching materials, as well as aiding in mission software development and testing. The website and blogs will also be updated with progress reports throughout their internships.
In addition to the other interns, a WVU graduate student was selected to aid in the thermal analysis for the mission. A thermal analysis is needed due to the extreme environment and temperature swings that will occur in low Earth orbit or LEO. The INSIDE of the spacecraft is expected to fluctuate between -40 and 85 degrees Celsius! That means that it will be 185 degrees Fahrenheit inside at certain points and that isn’t even the worst case scenario. Luckily, we can utilize different coatings on the external components to help protect the internal components and keep everything working.
References:
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/music-successfully-launched-from-nasa-wallops