Artist conception of the CAPER trajectory
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of NASA/Marshall
Scientists Successfully Launch CAPER
News story originally written on January 23, 1999
After having to wait weeks for the right solar and atmospheric conditions,
scientists were finally able to launch CAPER--the Cleft Acceleration
Plasma Experimental Rocket. It was launched from the Andoya Rocket Range
in Norway.
CAPER will help scientists find out what causes low energy particles to
leave the Earth's atmosphere. They think that
electrical instabilities in the
ionosphere give ions the
energy they need to break away into the
magnetosphere.
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