Giant Freakin Robot

Early this morning, an Atlas 5 rocket carrying a new scientific mission for NASA blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The early morning launch was actually the second attempt after a failed tracking beacon caused the launch to be scrubbed last Friday. After troubleshooting the beacon problem, the launch was held a day and then scrubbed altogether as Hurricane Isaac made for some poor weather last Saturday. Held until today, when the launch conditions showed signs of being more favorable, and the Atlas V containing NASA’s RBSP mission launched successfully at 4:05am EST. Enough of all that technical stuff, have a look at this hot action-on-opposite-reaction action…

The twin Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) satellites will help expand our knowledge about the Van Allen radiation belts and why the level of radiation they exhibit changes over time. The Van Allen belts are the invisible bands of charged particles that surround the Earth with two doughnut-shaped regions of radiation. The RBSP’s will orbit the Earth in an eccentric loop that will carry them through both belts in an effort to understand how these belts of radiation interact with the Sun. It is hoped that a better understanding of the Sun’s interaction with the Van Allen Belts could lead to better space weather forecasting and protection for both satellites and humans travelling through them. The Orbit of the ISS takes it directly through the inner belt’s closest point to Earth and requires the craft to have some heavier shielding to protect the astronauts inside.

Here’s Project Scientist David Sibeck as he explains the RBSPs mission.