Auroral Photography Experiment

Abstract : Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratories is performing a joint experiment with AFGL to make observations of the aurora, airglow, shuttle induced emission effects such as surface discharge, shuttle glow, and thruster induced effects. In this program, the Air Force will be flying Lockheed instrumentation as a secondary payload on the shuttle, and will make observations through the orbiter windows with the specialized equipment. The hardware is essentially a re-flight of the Auroral Photography Experiment (APE) which was flown on mission 41-G. Current status of the program is : (1) All the Lockheed hardware was delivered to Johnson Space Center; (2) Most of the hardware has been qualified for flight; (3) Experiment Operation definition is in progress. (4) Data Analysis and scientific publication program is progressing with two papers submitted for publication.