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News Archive 2006


December 11, 2006
: With the decision to ship the Probes and Carrier to Florida, the THEMIS team members packed up the probes at JPL, said "good bye" to their friends there and hit the road. Paul Turin, Greg Dalton, Daniele Meilhan and Michael Ludlam piled in the lead van and kept the two vans company across country. Arriving this morning, the probes and GSE were off-loaded and set up in the Astrotech facility. The photographs show the probes in their new home. (Note one was unbagged so NASA photographers could get a look, but we rebagged it right afterward.) See the press release in the articles section.

December 7, 2006: The THEMIS probes are in the process of being moved from California to Florida where they will be launched into orbit in February. So far they have been packed up Click to see image of THEMIS Probe for shipment to Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The THEMIS team will soon move the Probe Carrier stored in upper Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to the Spacecraft Assembly Facility (SAF) airlock. The THEMIS team will also organize the equipment going to KSC in the SAF cleanroom. These activities will streamline the loading of the trucks early Friday morning, Dec 8th.

December 6, 2006: The November 29th meeting at Kennedy Space Center concluded with a unanimous "Go!" given to transport the payload from JPL to Florida for launch processing. THEMIS continues onward toward a February 15th launch at 6:07 pm eastern.

October 19, 2006: THEMIS probes are getting ready to be shipped from their storage place at JPL to the launch site.

October 19, 2006: THEMIS probes are getting ready to be shipped from their storage place at JPL to the launch site.

September 20, 2006: THEMIS FACT SHEET: THEMIS Mission to Determine the Cause of Disturbances in Geospace.

September 18, 2006: Legion Magazine released a new article about THEMIS called Capturing The Light Fantastic. You can also view the article as JPEG: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

September 12, 2006: Take a look at our new patch and the poem that describes the mission from a new angle!

August 17, 2006: See the THEMIS orbits movie - Artists conception - created by the NASA/GSFC Visualisation team: Walt Feimer and Tom Bridgman.

August 9, 2006: A national conference for science educators at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal. Dr. Eric Donovan, Canadian THEMIS Co-I is a keynote speaker to talk about THEMIS and Aurora Borealis.

August 4, 2006: Article about THEMIS on the Canadian Space Agency website: THEMIS: The Stakeout for Northern Lights in the Canadian Tundra.

August 2, 2006: Two more movies of Probe 5 (F5) during spin balance tests in two axes: The process measures the mass rotational symmetry of the probe and we place weights to ensure it is aligned with the geometrical axis of symmetry of the probe. This is like a car tire balance machine, only bigger and more accurate. The reason we put the weights is so that we are safe (we dont tip over) and we don't spin about the wrong axis (our look directions don't wobble). Kind of like what you care about balancing your tires.

  1. Probe 5 during the spin balance test around the XY axis (between X and Y).
  2. Probe 5 during spin balance test around Z axis.

August 1, 2006: Pictures from Week 5:

  1. A group picture of the environmental test team.
  2. Hollywood Star Morgan Freeman visits JPL.
  3. One of the probes during the spin balance test.

July 24-28, 2006: New pictures of THEMIS Probes' in the 4th week of the environmental test at JPL:

  1. Probe 5 at the spin balance
  2. Probes 3 and 4 being prepared.
  3. Probes 3 and 4 are ready for the thermal vacuum
  4. Probe 2 getting ready for transport.
  5. Probe 2 and Probe Carrier
Austrian Press with seven articles on THEMIS. Highlighting the Mission:
 

July 24, 2006: Two new Austrian press articles for THEMIS from Austrian Space Academy and Austrian press Agency :
  1. All five THEMIS Satellites are Getting Ready for Launch (German)
  2. THEMIS Satellites are Getting Ready to Search the Origins of the Auroras (German)

July 18, 2006: THEMIS Probes' Z-Axis Vibration test in the 3rd week of the environmental test at JPL: The probe carrier assembly (PCA) is hoisted onto the vibration table. Then, the PCA is fastened to the table, where the PCA is in the vibration test.

July 17, 2006: New pictures of THEMIS probes from the 2nd week of the environmental test at JPL: The probes were moved to the probe carrier one by one until the probe carrier has all four probes. The fifth probe is then attached to the top of the probe carrier assembly. Probe carrier assembly has the Solar Array Covers on. The probe carrier assembly with covers removed is ready for the vibration test, which is then conducted. Lastly, the probe carrier assembly is then moved to the Dolly.

July 13, 2006: Environmental test at JPL is in progress and all is going well. This image shows all five probes on the probe carrier without the covers.

July 10, 2006: THEMIS probes at JPL are ready for the environmental testing. See the side view and top view of the probes.

June 28, 2006: Three of the THEMIS spacecraft were packed up and transported over night to JPL. Please go to Gallery to view pictures.

June 20, 2006: A virtual tour of the integration room with five spacecraft.

June 19, 2006: The fifth spacecraft/probe arrived from Swales to UCB last Thursday and since then was checked out by itself and as side-by-side with the pre-integrated fifth instrument suite. Environmental Testing at JPL, starting June 29, and Launch Site processing in Florida, is starting in mid-August. A collage of the five spacecrafts is shown in this picture all in one room at SSL.


Colage of five spacecraft, click to view

June 8, 2006: In March and April, the THEMIS probe, F2, was the first probe to be tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA with all it's instruments and solar panels in tact. Check out the slide show describing this process.

May 30, 2006: Today, the fourth THEMIS probe, out of five, has been delivered to the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). This probe is labeled F1. Now all four probes, F1 through F4, are at UCB where they are in different stages of integration and testing.

Pic of activity with people in cleaning roomMay 19, 2006: Three out of the five THEMIS probes are now at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). They reside in a clean room where tests are performed just about every day. Scientists are anxiously looking at the results and making sure that their instruments will perform in a satisfactory manner. Pic of activity with people in cleaning room Quality Assurance personnel keep a close eye on the every move of the spacecrafts. Managers keep monitoring the schedule and the budget as launch is only months away now. Engineers test, correct and improve every tiny detail that needs attention. And technicians install, wrap, and connect hardware.

April 24, 2006: THEMIS reached an important milestone, with the first of our probes having finished environmental testing and passing with flying colors.

March 19, 2006: The THEMIS project hit a milestone this week. The lab bustled with activity as engineers and technicians packed up the first probe (satellite) to go to Pasadena at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for environmental testing. These tests are magnetic tests, thermal vacuum tests, vibration tests, alignments tests, shock test, and acoustic test. Tons of ground support equipment, computers, and documentation were packaged as well as the probe. A freight truck transported all this during the night between Berkeley and Southern California with two THEMIS engineers in a pilot car. Some of UC Berkeley Engineers will end up spending weeks away from home. Our lab will remain busy as the second and third probes are about to be delivered to have their instruments tested.

Eric DonavanMarch 16, 2006: Eric Donavan gave a public lecture to about 500 people about the THEMIS Canadian THEMIS Aurora Project at the TELUS World of Science in Calgary, in Canada. He described a bit about the competitive process that leads to a mission like THEMIS. Find out more at the Peter Sim Memorial Lecture Page.


March 8, 2006: Take a survey about SEGway’s Exploring Magnetism lesson guides:

Supplies are running low on SEGway’s printed booklets of the Exploring Magnetism educator guide, plus we have just completed a new guide in the series: Exploring Magnetism in Solar Flares.

To help us decide whether or not to print more copies of these guides or to produce CD-ROMs containing all the Exploring Magnetism guides please take our survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=671391810708

January 19, 2006: Recent news from November and December was moved to the 2005 archive page. Check out the archived news pages to learn more about major events in the THEMIS mission and education programs.

January 18, 2006: THEMIS teacher, Wendy Esch of Wisconsin, together with 3 of her students and the school's superintendant, gave a presentation to the Shawano Optimist club about THEMIS. To find out more about Ms. Esch and her school's involvment in THEMIS, go to our Geomagnetic Events Observation Network by Students (GEONS) page and then visit the Wisconsin school page.

 News About the Sun and Auroras 
The Sun is less active and heading toward "Solar Minimum". But there are still occasional Coronal Mass Ejections that head for Earth. Find out more, including their effects on Earth at SEGway's Sun and Space Weather News page.

 Upcoming Events 

Teacher Professional Development Workshops
We hold regular teacher professional development workshops at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. These workshops are free and cover a wide range of space science concepts. Check out the workshops webpage to find out more, including what workshops are coming up soon.


 Articles About THEMIS 
IE Icon Adobe PDF IconTHEMIS Arrives in Florida for Launch Preparations (HTML article, published on NASA website, also PDF (15kB) format if HTML is not available.)
- Dec 11, 2006
THEMIS probes relocate to Florida for Feb. 15 launch
(HTML article, published on berkeley.edu)

- Dec 11, 2006

Related Links

Sites open in a new window:

Kennedy Space Center -
THEMIS launch event

Native Village News 2004 -
THEMIS magnetometer program on the Pine Ridge Reservation

Solar and Space Physics and Its Role in Space Exploration (2004) -
THEMIS section

Lawrence Hall of Science GEMS Program -
Find out more on this page

The Holt Planetarium -
At the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley
Glossary of Terms
Click for definitions of words used on this page:

aurora
auroral band
auroral eruptions
Cal Day
GEMS
GEONS
magnetometer
preliminary design review
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View printable version of entire glossary

CSE @ SSL SEGWAY Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum

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