With roots in the pre-NASA days of WWII sounding rockets and suborbital flights, the Engineering Division at LASP has developed space instruments and small spacecraft to support the goals and objectives of space science for decades. In the 1960s LASP built uv spectrometers for Mariner 6, 7, and 9. Primarily designed to observe the uv signature of the Martian atmosphere, the instrument measurements were used to produce the first topographic map of Mars.

LASP’s uv spectrometer on the Pioneer Venus Mission, launched in the late 1970s, returned 14 years of observations. In the 1980s, the Voyager spacecraft carried LASP’s photopolarimeter - an instrument designed to measure dust and ice crystals in a planet’s atmosphere. The loss of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 struck a blow to LASP’s research efforts as her payload bay contained LASP’s Spartan spacecraft developed to observe Halley’s Comet. In the last seven years the Engineering division has evolved from working on one $6-8 million flight program at a time to handling multiple programs in the $30 - $120 million size.

Many of LASP’s current engineering personnel have decades of expertise in small spacecraft and instrument technology. LASP engineers have expertise in structures, stress and thermal analysis, mechanisms, detectors covering the spectrum of extreme ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths, imaging optics, electronics, microprocessors, and vacuum test and calibration.

The co-location of scientists and engineers maximizes scientific return by enabling dynamic, collaborative interaction to maximize the exchange of ideas. Problems are addressed quickly—oftentimes with decisions that improve instrument quality without impacting cost and schedule. Experience gained by developing hardware in-house is retained and passed on to future projects. This heritage is a key element in LASP’s excellent performance record.

University of Colorado at Boulder