Xinlin Li News

NASA Spotlight on CU Boulder CubeSat Van Allen Belt research

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 18:59:33 +0000

NASA Spotlight on CU Boulder CubeSat Van Allen Belt research Jeff Zehnder Tue, 09/17/2024 - 12:59

An instrument aboard the CIRBE CubeSat is using advanced detection techniques and leveraging an orbit with specific characteristics to increase our understanding of the Van Allen belts

Designed and built by Smead Aerospace and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the �ֲ��ý Boulder, CIRBE launched in 2023 and is conducting sophisticated, fine-grain measurements of the Van Allen radiation belts. CIRBE is managed by Professors Xinlin Li and Scott Palo.

NASA is highlighting the research in a new article on an intense magnetic storm in May 2024.

Read the full article at NASA.gov...

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Successful launch for the CIRBE CubeSat

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:11:40 +0000

Successful launch for the CIRBE CubeSat Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/26/2023 - 09:11

CIRBE being successfully deployed from the Transport-7 SpaceX Falcon9 rocket.

The CIRBE CubeSat is live from space after a successful launch and deployment.

CIRBE, the Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment nano satellite, is a joint project of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.

Led by Profs. Xinlin Li and Scott Palo, CIRBE was launched into a sun synchronous orbit with local time ascending node at 10:30 AM (~97.4 deg inclination and ~500 km) on April 15 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket.

Communications with the spacecraft were established during its first path over Boulder, and both spacecraft and the instrument aboard are in normal working condition. The instrument was first turned on three days after launch. Science data were first downloaded via S-band and successfully decoded on April 20. The operations team are finishing the commissioning phase, and expect to move into normal science mode this week.

More than CU Boulder 20 aerospace graduate and undergraduate students are directly involved with CIRBE.

The CIRBE bus was built by Blue Canyon Technologies. Its science payload is REPTile-2 (Relativistic Electron and Proton Telescope integrated little experiment -2) with a mission to gain a better understanding of the formation of inner radiation belt electrons as well as determine where these particles come from and how they behave.

REPTile-2 is an advanced version of REPTile, which first flew on CSSWE, the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment CubeSat. CSSWE was the first joint CubeSat of LASP and Smead Aerospace. It was also led by Li and Palo and operated in space for over two years in space from 2012-2014.

Find out more about CIRBE at LASP

CIRBE after being successfully integrated into the CubeSat dispenser.

The CIRBE CubeSat is live from space after a successful launch and deployment. CIRBE, the Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment nano satellite, is a joint project of the Laboratory for Atmospheric...

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Xinlin Li elected a 2021 AGU Fellow

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 22:22:09 +0000

Xinlin Li elected a 2021 AGU Fellow Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/30/2021 - 16:22

Xinlin Li, a researcher at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES) at the �ֲ��ý Boulder, has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). He is one of 59 individuals worldwide selected in 2021 for this honor, which is reserved for fewer than 0.1% of the union’s members. AGU is recognizing Li for transformational research in the dynamics of Earth’s radiation belts and for outstanding studies of solar wind-magnetosphere coupling.

Dr. Li’s research focuses on the dynamics of Earth’s space environment and the development of spaceborne instruments and CubeSats, small satellites that are increasingly used to address key scientific questions. He also conducts research on the energy conversion from the solar wind into the magnetosphere, particle acceleration and transport, magnetic storms and substorms, and the effects of space weather on spacecraft subsystems.

After earning a Ph.D. at Dartmouth College in 1992, Li worked as a Research Associate at Dartmouth before moving to CU Boulder in 1995. Throughout his career, he has received numerous honors. NASA, through its Group Achievement Awards, has recognized Li’s exceptional dedication, skill, and perseverance through his contributions to multiple projects, including THEMIS and the Van Allen Probes. In 2006, he also received the European Space Agency Award in recognition of outstanding contributions made to Cluster’s exploration of geospace.

Dr. Li is currently the principal investigator on the NASA-funded CIRBE satellite, whose mission is to explore Earth’s inner radiation belt to gain a better understanding of how the electrons found there form, where these electrons come from, and how they behave. He previously served as the principal investigator on the National Science Foundation-funded Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE) and as the co-investigator on NASA’s MinXSS CubeSat mission.

“Xinlin has been a close colleague of mine here at LASP for over two decades,” says LASP Director Dan Baker. “His research has been outstanding during that entire time, and his record of training the next generation of space researchers has been unparalleled. His election as an AGU Fellow is richly deserved.”

Brian Argrow, the chair of CU Boulder’s AES Department, adds, “The CSSWE mission, which was co-led by Prof. Li and Prof. Scott Palo, involved more than 65 graduate and undergraduate students. It has been a tremendous success in science, engineering, and education.”

Dr. Li will be formally recognized during the annual AGU Fall Meeting, to be held December 13–17 in New Orleans.

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Four CU Boulder aerospace students earn major NASA awards

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 17:05:47 +0000

Four CU Boulder aerospace students earn major NASA awards Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/01/2021 - 11:05

Jeff Zehnder

Four �ֲ��ý Boulder aerospace graduate students have been named 2021 Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST).

Daniel da Silva, Sarah Luettgen, Riley Reid, and Kevin Sacca have each earned the grants, which provide up to $45,000 annually for three years for tuition and to cover graduate student-designed and performed research projects.

FINESST proposals must address goals relevant to NASA's science mission directorate divisions -- heliophysics, earth science, planetary science, or astrophysics. The agency received 835 applications from students across the country for 2021 and is funding 130 of them.

Find out more about each of our awardees and their research below:

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Shoebox-sized cube satellite to study Earth's inner radiation belt

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 21:00:09 +0000

Shoebox-sized cube satellite to study Earth's inner radiation belt Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/14/2018 - 15:00

A NASA-funded cube satellite built and operated by CU Boulder researchers will study the inner radiation belt of Earth’s magnetosphere, providing new insight into the energetic particles that can disrupt satellites and threaten spacewalking astronauts.

CU Boulder Professor Xinlin Li holds up a model of the CSSWE cube satellite that studied energetic particles in Earth's magnetosphere. The new CIRBE cube satellite will build on the success of the CSSWE. Photo: LASP

The $4 million Cubesat: Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) mission, tentatively slated for a 2021 launch, will provide some of the first advanced resolution of one of Earth’s two Van Allen belts, a zone that traps energetic particles in the planet’s magnetic field. This powerful radiation, known to physicists since the late 1950s, poses a hazard to solar panels, electronic circuitry and other hardware aboard spacecraft traveling at and beyond a low Earth orbit.

“CIRBE will provide sophisticated, fine-grain measurements of this Van Allen belt like never before,” said principal investigator Professor Xinlin Li of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES). “We will study the distribution of these particles and how they become so energized.”

Cube satellites are breadbox-sized satellites that can be built economically in order to achieve specific scientific objectives. CU Boulder students (including undergraduates) have worked on several successful cube satellite missions in recent years, and the campus currently has more than eight cube satellite projects in operation or in development across its various departments and research institutes.

“CU Boulder is clearly recognized as a world leader in cube satellite technology,” said Professor Scott Palo of AES, a co-investigator on the project. “We’ve seen tremendous growth over the past five or six years. Industry partners and science organizations see a huge value in these small satellites.”

CIRBE is poised to build on the success of the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE), a cube satellite that launched in 2012 to study the Van Allen belt and operated for over two years. CSSWE’s data resulted in over 21 peer-reviewed publications in major scientific journals, including Nature. The mission also helped solve a longstanding astronomical mystery.

In the years since CSSWE’s launch, the researchers have further improved their ground station, which is located on the roof of the LASP building on CU Boulder’s campus. By the time CIRBE launches, the station will be able to collect data 100 times faster than before.

The CIRBE mission will include collaborations with Colorado’s aerospace industry, including Boulder-based Blue Canyon Technologies, which will manufacture the cube satellite’s bus system. The overall system design, science instrument development, integration, test, mission operation, data analysis and modeling will be done at CU by LASP and AES faculty, engineers and graduate students. The project also features a partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center.

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How a student satellite solved a major space mystery

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:05:42 +0000

How a student satellite solved a major space mystery Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/13/2017 - 17:05

A 60-year-old mystery regarding the source of some energetic and potentially damaging particles in Earth’s radiation belts is now solved using data from a shoebox-sized satellite built and operated by CU Boulder students.

The results from the new study indicate energetic electrons in Earth’s inner radiation belt—primarily near its inner edge—are created by cosmic rays born from explosions of supernovas, said the study’s lead author, Professor Xinlin Li of CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Earth’s radiation belts, known as the Van Allen belts, are layers of energetic particles held in place by Earth’s magnetic field.

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