HESTO is pleased to announce the selection of three 2025 pathfinder projects,
- “Miniaturized Double Langmuir Probe onboard the Resolute Rocket Expedition” led by Dr. Robert Clayton of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (22-HTIDS22-0018)
- “Assistance Magnetometer on the Resolute Rocket Rideshare” led by Dr. Mark Moldwin of the University of Michigan (23-HTIDS23-0001)
- ““Maturing the Miniature Winds Meter through Rideshare on a Pair of Sounding Rockets” by Dr. James Clemmons of University of New Hampshire (21-HTIDS-21-0012)
The first two of these projects will rideshare on Dr. Glyn Collinson’s of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Resolute Sounding Rocket which is a dual sounding rocket mission to launch from Andøya, Norway in 2027. The science goal of this mission is to determine how are heavy ions are lofted from the ionosphere to the boundary with the magnetosphere. Resolute is flying 3 primary instruments in addition to a FIELDS package which includes a magnetometer, Langmuir probe, and electric field probes. The two pathfinder instruments will enhance the science outcomes of Resolute in addition to providing an opportunity to test these new technologies in space for the first time. The miniaturized Langmuir probe by Robert Clayton will provide measurements complimentary to the existing Langmuir probe. They’ll be able to compare and confirm the measurement from this new instrument with an existing and established instrument. Dr. Moldwin’s magnetometer will be used to enhance the measurements of the existing magnetometer by characterizing the magnetic field background generated by the sounding rocket.
Dr. Clemmons’s pathfinder project will rideshare with the Dynamo3 sounding rocket mission led by Dr. Robert Pfaff of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and scheduled to launch in July 2026 from Wallops Island, VA. The goal of the Dynamo3 mission is to understand the dynamo currents, fields, and winds in the lower E-region and how they relate to the currents, fields, and winds in the upper atmosphere. Dr Clemmons will provide his Miniature Winds Meters (MWM) to each of the two planned sounding rockets to provide complementary observations of the in situ thermospheric density, winds, and temperature.
Though unlikely, additional selections for this opportunity may be announced.