Out of this world

Before there was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), there was Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, which kicked off Project Rover—an effort to develop a nuclear-powered rocket—in 1955.

In the years since, Los Alamos (often partnering with NASA and other organizations) has continued to apply science, engineering, and manufacturing expertise to basic space science and space-based nuclear detonation detection.

Past research and discovery highlights include the ChemCam and SuperCam instruments on the Mars rovers, the Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers instrument, the Van Allen Probes, and NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer. Present highlights include the NASA Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe IMAP-Hi and Solar Wind Electron instruments and the Advanced Ion Mass Spectrometer Sentry instrument.

“These research and discovery instruments are exciting both because of the groundbreaking data they deliver and because they allow us to experiment with and mature innovative scientific, engineering, and manufacturing techniques,” explains Jessica Wood, who leads the Space Instrument Realization group within the Lab’s Intelligence and Space Research (ISR) division. “The technologies developed for and the lessons learned from science missions are often directly applicable to our national security missions.”

Global security is also a key focus of ISR. Since Los Alamos built and launched the first Vela satellites in 1963, the Lab has designed, built, and operated instruments to monitor international compliance with the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits nuclear detonations in space, the atmosphere, and underwater. The first Vela satellites were equipped with x-ray, neutron, and gamma-ray detectors, as well as charged particle and plasma sensors.  In addition to their global security applications, these instruments provided some of the first measurements of Earth’s space-radiation environment and the discovery of gamma ray bursts. The Laboratory continues to build and launch similar suites of instruments today.

Wood highlights the Space and Atmospheric Burst Reporting System (SABRS) instruments, which detect prompt gamma rays (the initial burst of gamma rays in a nuclear explosion), delayed gamma rays (found in radioactive decay after the initial burst), neutrons, and high- and low-energy charged particles. All SABRS development and fabrication work takes place at Los Alamos, and each SABRS payload takes about four and a half years to build, test, and deliver for integration with its host satellite. “They hold a special place for those of us in the mechanical and manufacturing engineering discipline because they are so interesting and complex to design and build,” Wood says. “Colleagues frequently refer to the staff who build such instruments as having ‘magic hands’ because they have the skills and dexterity to fabricate these delicate, sophisticated assemblies with the quality and robustness to operate in the harsh space environment.”

In addition to ISR, the Lab’s Actinide Material Processing & Power (AMPP) division also manufactures parts for space. For more than 50 years, AMPP has manufactured heat sources, which are power sources made from plutonium-238. The radioactive isotope of plutonium generates heat as it decays. This heat is converted to electricity by a generator and can power a device in deep space for a very long time. In addition to powering the Mars rovers, heat sources manufactured at Los Alamos have powered the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn. In 2027, plutonium-238 will power the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

From satellite instruments to heat sources, Los Alamos is “staffed with incredibly creative problem-solvers and individuals with highly valuable and specialized skills,” Wood says. “Designing and fabricating these intricate, multi-component instruments to operate over long mission lifetimes in the extreme environment of space is both challenging and thrilling.” ★