A $5 million University of Colorado at Boulder satellite dubbed the "Little Satellite That Did" now is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up in early December following a successful six-year mission.
The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer, or SNOE, is carrying instruments that have measured nitric oxide in the upper atmosphere that affects Earth's ozone layer, the intensity of X-rays from the sun and ultraviolet light from Earth's aurora. Developed at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics by students, engineers and faculty, the mission has been controlled from LASP's CU Research Park facility 24 hours a day by students and faculty since early 1998.
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"It is remarkable to me how successful SNOE has been," said Davis. "The reasons we built SNOE in-house was the opportunity of involving more than 100 students in the project from design and construction to satellite control and the tremendous science SNOE was capable of doing. We have extremely competent and enthusiastic students here."
From 1981 to 1989, CU students and faculty controlled the Solar Mesosphere Explorer satellite from campus, the first NASA satellite ever entirely operated and controlled by a university. SNOE was the second.
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"During the final months of SNOE's lifetime, the students formed a SNOE re-entry team to carefully monitor the satellite's performance," said Barth. "This has been a truly unique experience for CU-Boulder students to participate in from launch to re-entry."
