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Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE 2)
Status:
Completed
Mission Category:
Historical Missions
Launch Date: August 3, 1981
Launch Location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA
The Dynamics Explorer (DE) mission's general objective was to investigate the strong interactive processes coupling the hot, tenuous, convecting plasmas of the magnetosphere and the cooler, denser plasmas and gases corotating in the Earth’s ionosphere, upper atmosphere, and plasmasphere. Two satellites, DE 1 and DE 2, were launched together and were placed in polar coplanar orbits, permitting simultaneous measurements at high and low altitudes in the same field-line region.
Key Dynamics Explorer 2 Facts
| Mission/Portal Page: | http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1981-070B |
|---|---|
| Launch Vehicle: | Delta |
| Instruments: |
FPI (Fabry-Perot Interferometer) IDM (Ion Drift Meter) LANG (Langmuir Probe) LAPI (Low Altitude Plasma Instrument) MAG-B (Magnetic Field Observations Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer) NACS (Neutral Atmosphere Composition Spectrometer) RPA (Retarding Potential Analyzer) VEFI (Vector Electric Field Instrument) WATS (Wind and Temperature Spectrometer) |
| Project Scientist(s): |
Robert A. Hoffman |