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"It was a successful flight," wrote principal investigator Dr. Paul Kitner, in his daily CAPER update. "We wish to thank all of the many dedicated and talented individuals who contributed to the CAPER project." Just after the launch Prof. Kitner and his colleagues toasted the success of the mission with champagne before heading to the airport for their return to the United States. |
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Supporting data were gathered during the flight by NASA spacecraft and satellites. The Polar satellite monitored ultraviolet and visible light emissions from Earth's aurora from a perspective above the North Pole, while the ACE spacecraft measured solar wind fluxes and velocities. |
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"The success of the CAPER mission could significantly advance our understanding of Earth's magnetosphere and of space weather," says Mr. Mark Adrian, a plasma physicist at the University of Alabama, Huntsville who helped build two of CAPER's instruments. "Yesterday, the sounding rocket flew through the so-called 'Cleft Ion Fountain' which is a major contributor to charged particles in the magnetosphere. There's a debate going on now among plasma physicists about the source of energy that drives the fountain's particle flow. No one is quite certain where the free energy comes from, but there are some good ideas. The data from CAPER should clearly distinguish between competing models and help us understand how the ion fountain really works." |
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CAPER was funded by NASA and launched in collaboration with the Norwegian Space Agency, Andoya Rocket Range, UNIS. The GSFC/Wallop Flight Facility project manager was Dave Moltedo. For more information about the science of the CAPER mission please see Plasma scientists plan polar CAPER to study auroral ion fountain (Jan. 7). |
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Tony Phillips |
Jan. 21, 1999: A NASA sounding rocket designed to study
a region of Earth's atmosphere that is directly exposed to the
solar wind blasted off yesterday from the Andoya rocket range
in Norway. The the Cleft Accelerated Plasma Experimental Rocket
(CAPER) soared to an altitude of 1360 km, 20 km higher than expected.
During its 20 minute flight the rocket flew over several auroral
arcs, and passed through regions containing intense electric
fields and highly accelerated ions. CAPER probably landed in
the polar ice somewhere near the Longyearbyen tracking station
in Norway. 
