Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)(ISAS)
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)(ISAS)
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)(ISAS)
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)(ISAS)
School of Engineering, Kochi University of Technology
Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University
Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University
Lithium ejection system (LES) is one of the chemical payloads for the ionosphere observation. Lithium is selected as the chemical tracer to detect optically the neutral winds, and the thermite loaded in LES played a role of the heat sauce to vaporize the solid phase lithium. This device has been launched by the Japanese sounding rocket, S-520, from Uchinoura space center in 2007. Gaseous lithium was successfully injected into the space, and the red colored cloud was able to be observed from the ground. The concept was explained in early papers, and their design was shown that the thermite including lithium or sodium pellets was directly charged in the canister. Thermite is ignited by the pyrotechnics and generates the high temperature chemical products which give the vaporization energy of the released materials. The payload design was considered that the instruments on board which acts by the pyrotechnics need to be equipped with the safe and arm device (SAD) from the safety standard. The final design obtained the safety and the reliability of this device for storing and handling. Lithium in the canister is able to be removed with ease, and the tracer materials will be able to replace lithium to other one if necessary. 13 LES canisters were fabricated for ISAS-NASA international collaborative space science mission. This paper reports the results of the design study and the specification of LES.
内容記述
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内容記述(英)
Physical characteristics: Original contains color illustrations