Artist conception of the CAPER trajectory
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of NASA/Marshall
Scientists Successfully Launch CAPER
News story originally written on January 23, 1999
After waiting weeks for the right solar and atmospheric conditions,
scientists were finally able to launch the Cleft Acceleration Plasma
Experimental Rocket (CAPER) from Andoya Rocket Range in Norway.
CAPER will help determine what causes low energy particles to leave
the Earth's atmosphere. The current
theory is that electrical instabilities in the ionosphere
give ions the
energy that is needed to escape.
"We're studying a region that is believed to provide the majority of the
mass that makes up the magnetosphere
Victoria Coffey, a scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
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