This week, an instrument built by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) will launch aboard NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission on a million-mile journey to elucidate the origins and evolution of our solar system. But the journey began many years ago for the nearly 100 LASP scientists, engineers, students, and staff who worked on the Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX).
The IDEX instrument will detect interstellar and interplanetary dust that is flowing through our solar system, vaporize it and analyze its chemical composition using mass spectrometry—without having to return the samples to Earth. Interstellar dust is born from supernovas that result in the formation of stars and planetary systems, including our own. Interplanetary dust originates from comets and asteroids. IDEX aims to record hundreds of interstellar grains on its initial two-year mission, and even more if its mission is extended. To date, only 43 grains of interstellar dust have been studied from space missions. Measuring the composition, size, and velocity of these dust particles helps scientists understand the nature of interstellar space and collect clues about the origin and evolution of our solar system.
IDEX will complement IMAP’s nine other scientific instruments to help researchers better understand the boundary and structure of the heliosphere—the giant bubble created by the Sun’s solar wind that surrounds our solar system and protects it from harmful interstellar radiation—and how it interacts with interstellar space.
LASP also hosts the IMAP mission’s Science Operations Center (SOC), which is responsible for all aspects of instrument operations including planning, commanding, health and status monitoring, anomaly response and sustaining engineering. The SOC also includes a Science Data Center (SDC) that handles science data processing, distribution, archiving, and maintenance of the IMAP data management plan.
When IMAP launches early on the morning of Tues., Sept. 23, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, many members of the IDEX team will be in attendance to celebrate the milestone achievement and view the launch from Launch Pad 39A, where the historic Apollo missions were launched.
Let’s meet some members of Team IDEX!
Mihály Horányi
Q: What is your education & experience, and how long have you worked at LASP? A: I received an M.S. degree in Nuclear Physics and a Ph.D. in Space Physics at the Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest, Hungary. I joined the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in 1992 and the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1999.
Q: What is your role on the IDEX team? A: I’m the IDEX Instrument Lead (IDEX Principal Investigator), responsible for verifying that our instrument meets all its requirements, and I will lead the analysis and interpretation of our measurements.
Q: What is your best/favorite memory about your time working on IDEX? A: In addition to receiving the news about our selection, the first “light,” the impact event on the IDEX flight instrument at our dust accelerator facility and all its signals were successfully recorded through its flight software (picture below).
Q: What are your plans for the launch? A: I will be at the launch, looking forward to the emotional high as the rocket thunders off the launchpad.
Zoltan Sternovsky
Q: What is your education & experience, and how long have you worked at LASP? A: I am a physicist by training, with MS and PhD degrees from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. After completing my studies, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Physics Department at the University of Colorado. In 2005, I joined LASP, where my experience has focused on developing instruments for sounding rockets, advancing space instrumentation, and conducting a variety of laboratory measurements.
Q: What is your role on the IDEX team? A: I am the Deputy Science Lead and the instrument scientist for IDEX.
Q: What is your best/favorite memory about your time working on IDEX? A: Back in 2005, when we built the very first laboratory version of this instrument, it worked on the very first attempt. We obtained a beautiful mass spectrum using a laser pulse to mimic dust impacts. At that time, it wasn’t yet called IDEX—and it took a couple more years to get here.
Q: Will you be attending the launch in-person at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and what are you most looking forward to about the launch? A: Yes, I wouldn’t miss it. I’m looking forward to saying bon voyage as the rocket disappears into the sky.
Scott Knappmiller
Q: What is your education & experience, and how long have you worked at LASP? A: I received my PhD in Physics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2010. I have worked at LASP for 15 years.
Q: What is your role on the IDEX team? A: In 2020, I started as the Lead Instrument Engineer on IDEX helping build our ion detector and heading up our calibration efforts at the Dust Accelerator. For the last two years, I have been the Lead Engineer on IDEX. I supported IDEX through all of our Observatory tests and will continue through Commissioning post launch.
I took on that Lead Engineer role right as we started our Flight Model calibrations and Environmental tests (EMI/EMC, Vibe, and TVAC). I helped guide the team technically and ensure they all had the support they needed to accomplish their specific engineering feats.
Q: What is your best/favorite memory about your time working on IDEX? A: My favorite memory was delivering IDEX for integration onto the IMAP Spacecraft at John Hopkins Advanced Physics Laboratory. We were the first instrument to deliver, which was pretty cool!
Q: What are your plans for the launch? A: I will be attending the launch from Kennedy Space Center with my wife and daughter. I am most looking forward to space questions from my precocious daughter and sharing videos with her kindergarten classmates.
Chip Bollendonk
Q: What is your education & experience, and how long have you worked at LASP? A: I received my BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado Boulder and worked at LASP as a student engineering intern. I worked elsewhere for several years after graduation and returned to LASP in 2021 to work on the IDEX instrument.
Q: What is your role on the IDEX team? A: I was the lead mechanical engineer, so my role involved designing, analyzing, and ultimately building the physical instrument.
I led a team of five mechanical engineers and interns working together to design and build IDEX and interfaced with the other engineers and scientists to make sure our instrument would work as intended. I spent many hours in the cleanroom building IDEX, shepherding it through environmental testing, shooting dust at the IMPACT lab, and ultimately delivering it to the IMAP spacecraft.
Q: What is your best/favorite memory about your time working on IDEX? A: My favorite memories on IDEX are working with the engineering team to solve problems encountered during assembly and testing. This is a complicated instrument, so we definitely found a few things along the way! It was very rewarding to learn about its behavior and determine elegant solutions to meet our science requirements.
Q: What are your plans for the launch? A: I’ll be attending the launch at Kennedy Space Center, and this will be the first launch I’ve seen in person! I’m sure it will be very emotional to see this mission head to space.
By Sara Pratt, Sr. Communications Specialist
Founded a decade before NASA, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder (LASP) is revolutionizing human understanding of the cosmos. LASP is deeply committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of space explorers. From the first exploratory rocket measurements of Earth’s upper atmosphere to trailblazing observations of every planet in the solar system, LASP continues to build on its remarkable history with a nearly $1 billion portfolio of new research and engineering programs.
The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission is led by Princeton University professor and principal investigator, David J. McComas, along with an international team of more than 25 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is managing the development phase, building the spacecraft, and will operate the mission. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program portfolio. The Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the STP Program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
