The University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics will hold a free, public open house for a new, $13 million addition to its Space Technology Building in the CU Research Park on Thursday evening, March 2.
The new addition to the LASP facility is providing much needed room for space construction projects, mission operations and research programs. Located in the CU-Research Park, the existing 60,000-square-foot structure has gained 45,000 square feet for laboratories, offices and conference rooms, including a new high-bay and clean rooms for instruments designed and built by LASP for NASA planetary and space missions.
The free public event will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will include tours and talks by two LASP faculty members. Associate Professor Linnea Avallone will present a lecture, "Atmospheric Science at the Ends of the Earth: Studying Air Pollution in the Arctic and Antarctica" at 7 p.m. and again at 7:45 p.m. in the LASP auditorium. Professor Bruce Jakosky will talk at 7 p.m. and again at 7:45 on "Mars: Water, Climate and the Potential for Life," in room A200.
LASP receives about $45 million annually from federal sources, primarily NASA, and employs about 220 full-time research and professional staff. The institute controls three satellites from campus and has designed, built and flown scientific instruments and experiments on NASA missions to every planet in the solar system.
"This new addition is giving us some long-needed capabilities, and provides new opportunities to collaborate with NASA and other federal agencies," said LASP Director Dan Baker. "We are always looking for ways to expand our portfolio, which contributes to the educational mission of the university." In addition to research and professional staff, about 60 undergraduates and 60 graduate students are employed by LASP at any given time, Baker said.
"LASP is widely regarded as one of the premier university space institutes in the world," said CU-Boulder Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano. "This new facility will benefit not only our faculty and research staff, but it will provide new opportunities for students involved in exploring the frontiers of space."
LASP has a long heritage in space research, said Caroline Himes, executive associate director of LASP. Researchers and engineers from CU's Upper Air Laboratory -- which became the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in 1965 -- flew experiments on more than 50 rocket flights before the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957.
LASP has a $12.5 million instrument on the Cassini spacecraft now at Saturn, an $8.7 million instrument on the MESSENGER spacecraft now en route to Jupiter and a student instrument on the New Horizons spacecraft that launched for Pluto in January. The $1.1 million Student Dust Counter on New Horizons is the first student-built instrument ever launched on a NASA planetary mission.
LASP's largest project to date is the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment, or SORCE, an $88 million NASA satellite designed and built at LASP and launched in 2003. LASP researchers and students are using SORCE to monitor how and why variations in the sun affect Earth's atmosphere and climate.
LASP currently operates nine scientific instruments in space and is one of only five university-based satellite control centers in the nation, providing hands-on experience to about 30 students annually, Himes said. LASP has operated more spacecraft than all other university-based organizations combined.
The new addition was designed by the Denver architectural firm of AR7 Hoover Desmond, the architect for the Space Technology Building that was built by M.A. Mortenson Co. -- one of the largest contractors in Colorado -- and dedicated in 1991. The expansion project will be paid for by indirect cost recovery on LASP programs, said Himes.
Free public parking for the March 2 public event is available on-site.
LASP currently has four major flight programs in the "design, build and test phase," as well as contracts for more than 140 data and research programs with NASA, the National Science Foundation and other agencies, said Himes. The four major projects include:
*AIM -- The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere mission with two LASP instruments for a satellite slated to launch in 2006. It will study the climate of the mesosphere over the polar regions some 50 miles above Earth's surface
*EVE -- The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment is a suite of six instruments being developed by LASP to measure extreme UV radiation from the sun. EVE will ride on NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory, slated for launch in 2007, as part of the space agency's "Living With a Star" program.
*Glory - A follow-up to the SORCE satellite mission, Glory will continue monitoring solar radiation from the sun.
*TSIS - The Total Solar Irradiance Sensor, or TSIS, is one of two instruments being developed for the National Polar Operations Environmental Satellite System for the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. TSIS will continue long-term, comparative solar radiation studies.
For more information on LASP, visit the Web at: lasp.colorado.edu/.