Missions

A big part of the Solar and Heliospheric Research group is our flight
instrument program. This program was started at the University of
Maryland and moved to the University of Michigan with Professor George
Gloeckler in the mid-1990s. Responsibility for several instruments
already in space was moved to Michigan during this time.

Currently, we are responsible for six instruments onboard active
spacecraft (links below). We handle all instrument control through
Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and The Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Lab. We receive the level 0 data from
these institutions and use it to monitor the science operation and
develop and produce officially released data products for these
instruments.

Most recently, we led the development of the Fast Imaging Plasma
Spectrometer (FIPS), currently heading toward Mercury on NASA's
MESSENGER mission.

We have several new instruments under development and are actively
proposing for instruments on new missions every year.