Issue 18 • March 2023

LASP dust analyzer part of flagship Europa Clipper mission
SUDA instrument
In 2024, technology developed at LASP will travel to Jupiter’s moon Europa to determine if the icy moon has conditions that could support life. The Europa SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) instrument, which is about the size of a marching drum and weighs nearly 35 pounds, will be a key instrument aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

CTIM: testing future technology to extend one of the “most important” Earth science measurements
Since 1978, a variety of space-based instruments have been measuring total solar irradiance absorbed by the Earth. More recently, a miniature satellite has been on a mission to demonstrate that it can perform measurements just as precisely and accurately as this larger technology.

NASA’s MAVEN observes Martian light show caused by major solar storm
MAVEN spacecraft
For the first time in its eight years orbiting Mars, NASA’s MAVEN mission witnessed two different types of ultraviolet aurorae simultaneously.

LASP scientists present Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai research at AGU
A cloud of ash as seen from space
The islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai disappeared below the sea surface in a cataclysmic eruption in January 2022. Since then, LASP scientists have been unraveling both the short- and long-term impacts of the eruption.

More news

LASP announces new graduate student fellowships honoring its first director

LASP’s Peter Pilewskie named to prominent National Academies committee for space-based research

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