As NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission explores black holes, neutron stars, and other cosmic phenomena - helping to answer fundamental questions about extreme space environments - it relies on the mission operations team at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, or LASP.

Some 700 people - engineers, scientists, mission-operations personnel and data specialists - staff the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, housed on the campus of the University of Colorado-Boulder.

For the IXPE mission, LASP flight controllers and support teams monitor and maintain all command and control functions for the spacecraft, as well as planning and scheduling, data integrity, and spacecraft health and safety.

"I get very excited about IXPE science results," said LASP flight controller Kacie Davis. "IXPE is unique and groundbreaking because it measures polarized X-ray imagery - tracing light back to its source by precisely measuring its brightness and the direction in which photons flow from the source."

Research leads in the IXPE Science Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, identify targets and instruct LASP flight controllers to point at them for specific intervals, fine-tune calibrations, and collect the resulting data. All raw-data findings are processed and delivered to the primary IXPE science team within seven days of each completed observation.

Most of the cosmic objects IXPE observes are part of a carefully managed, year-long science operations plan, but the LASP team also may get alerted to reposition the spacecraft to observe unique targets of opportunity, known as "TOOs" in mission-ops vernacular. Such phenomena - a new supernova, perhaps, or an overstuffed black hole trying to digest a neutron star - are rare, but the LASP team is quick to respond, at any hour.

"It's a lot of work and a quick turnaround, like having a child," said researcher Stephanie Ruswick, who in late 2022 will succeed LASP's current flight director, Darren Osborne. "The other night, my 1-year-old slept through the night... but IXPE did not! Our team is always ready to step up and meet those unanticipated requests."

Trained students on console
The LASP team includes a cadre of CU-Boulder undergraduates, Osborne said - a big advantage for career-minded engineering and science students.

The summer prior to their junior year, students can enroll in an intensive, 12-week training program to join the team. They train side-by-side with certified LASP command controllers, learning all they can about executing flight operations, monitoring the health of spacecraft in flight, and troubleshooting issues in real time. Each student must complete a checklist of 300 mission-critical tasks on console and pass three written exams.

The paid positions don't earn the undergrads course credit at the university, "but it gives them a definite leg up on their career goals," Osborne said. "It's a big commitment."

Among those undergraduates now on console is Alexander Pichler, an aerospace engineering senior and the student lead for IXPE. He said there's no substitute for learning in a practical environment like this one, which complements and informs every facet of his classroom education.

"It really has been an extraordinary opportunity," said Pichler, now midway through his second year on the LASP team. "Now and then, I step back and think 'I'm sending commands to a spacecraft that's up there right now, helping to expand our understanding of the universe.' It's a truly horizon-widening experience."

Davis, who graduated from CU-Boulder in 2020 with a degree in astronomy before joining the mission operations team, agrees.

"We're doing brand new things that have never been done before, poking at big questions a lot of people shy away from: How is this possible? How can this exist?" she said. "It's so exciting to be a part of it - helping to further a larger scientific conversation."

Related Links
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It

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