Satellites are big. They cost a lot of money. At least that's the impression a couple of University of Maryland-College Park students had when they applied for an placement to help construct a satellite instrument with scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. As the pair quickly discovered, nothing could have been farther from the truth.
The small satellite, with a big mission, is appropriately named "Firefly." Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the pint-sized satellite will study the most powerful natural particle accelerator on Earth - lightning - when it launches from the Marshall Islands aboard an Air Force Falcon 1E rocket vehicle next year. In particular, Firefly will focus on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, a little understood phenomenon first discovered by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the early 1990s.
Firefly satellite in orbit video from the animation.
The small satellite, with a big mission, is appropriately named "Firefly." Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the pint-sized satellite will study the most powerful natural particle accelerator on Earth - lightning - when it launches from the Marshall Islands aboard an Air Force Falcon 1E rocket vehicle next year. In particular, Firefly will focus on Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, a little understood phenomenon first discovered by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in the early 1990s.