July brought many more steps forward for the IMAP mission. Successful critical design reviews (CDRs) were held for the SWAPI and SWE instruments, as well as for several systems: the electrical power system (EPS), the spacecraft harness system, and the mission operation system’s ground hardware. More teams can move into final testing on their completed engineering models and begin building flight model components for the IMAP spacecraft.

There are several non-CDR related successes that are also exciting. The space flight software team released a new version of the software, and the Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX) has successfully completed gold-coating the ionAn atom that has become electrically charged by the gain or loss of one or more electrons. target and incorporated it into the engineering model assembly. Keep reading to hear more about IDEX and the IDEX team. 

Several CDRs are scheduled for August, as well as two exciting events the IMAP team is looking forward to. One is another in-person team meeting for the IMAP scientists, instrument teams, and Science Operations Center (SOCThe Science Operation Center is a team of people in a physical facility that oversee the science observations for a mission, and collect and process incoming data. IMAP’s SOC is housed at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).) folks. I cannot emphasize enough how these in-person opportunities not only increase collaboration and creativity for optimizing the performance of IMAP, but also fuel team morale and strengthening IMAP team connections. Mid-month we will also be at Space-X for the IMAP Mission Integration Kick-off where the IMAP and Space-X teams begin finalizing logistics for IMAP’s launch and spacecraft separation on a Space-X Falcon-9 rocket. We are very grateful to have this opportunity to partner together with the people of Space-X for the IMAP mission launch.  

Now, a little more on the IDEX instrument. IDEX will provide the elemental compositionThe specific components or “ingredients” that make up a substance or type of matter., speed, and massA measure of an object's resistance to change in its motion (inertial mass); a measure of the strength of gravitational force an object can produce (gravitational mass). distributions of interstellar (and other solar system) dust grains, delivering detailed composition measurements across a wide mass range through impact ionizationThe process by which ions are produced, typically occurring by collisions with atoms or electrons ("collisional ionization") or by interaction with electromagnetic radiation ("photoionization").. This instrument provides an opportunity to directly sample and discover the chemical makeup of solid matter in our local galactic environment with unmatched resolution. Dust enters IDEX through an accelerator grid and smashes into a unique gold-plated target where it is ionized into its elemental particles. To prevent contamination before IMAP reaches its deployment destination, a one-timeA measure of the flow of events. deployable door covering the accelerator grid has been included. Once deployed, IDEX will decontaminate the ionization target regularly.

IDEX’s impact ionization target is extremely contamination sensitive; any ion contaminate residue could show up in the dust mass spectrumElectromagnetic radiation arranged in order of wavelength. A rainbow is a natural spectrum of visible light from the Sun. Spectra are often punctuated with emission or absorption lines, which can be examined to reveal the composition and motion of the radiating source. in the data, making extreme cleanliness essential in the target-coating process. For IDEX to function optimally, the gold plating also requires a thickness of 5000 nanometers. Most gold coating for optics requires less than 100nm. These two conditions posed a large challenge to the IDEX team, as coating manufacturers were not able to work to these specs. A year of collaborative efforts between IDEX’s home at the Laboratory for Atmosphere and Space Physics (LASP) and JILA research institute, both at University of Colorado, Boulder, resulted in developing a specialized process specific to IDEX that resolves both challenges. As mentioned above, the first model target was very recently coated successfully, as seen in this image, and assembled into the IDEX engineering model. It is currently in a chamber for high voltage testing. IDEX expects to have “first dust” testing data results within a month or so.

I’d like to introduce you to one of the IDEX team members behind developing the specialized coating process for the sensor target: Scott Knappmiller. Scott has a rich career path that began as an undergrad researcher at Boulder’s plasmaPlasma consists of a gas heated to sufficiently high temperatures that the atoms ionize. The properties of the gas are controlled by electromagnetic forces among constituent ions and electrons, which results in different behavior than gas made primarily of neutral atoms like the Earth’s atmosphere. Plasma is often considered the fourth state of matter (besides solid, liquid, and gas). Most of the matter in the Universe is in the plasma state. physics lab where he first met Mihaly Horanyi and Zoltan Sternovsky, Instrument Lead and Deputy Instrument Lead for IDEX. After graduate school that took him across the globe, he returned to LASP where he is currently the lead instrument engineer for IDEX. Please enjoy getting to know a little about Scott and his contributions to the IMAP team. 

GO IMAP GO!  

IMAP Team Spotlight Feature: Scott Knappmiller, IDEX Lead Instrument Engineer

“Something that's just interesting about my job is I get to do a little bit of everything. That's the thing that I like the most about [it].” Trained as a scientist with a PhD in plasma physics and now practicing as an engineer, Scott brings an extraordinary proficiency to his position in being able to live in both worlds, helping to bridge communication and understanding between the two groups working on the IMAP IDEX instrument. 

“I really get to be an interface between the scientists and the rest of the engineering group [along with the systems engineer]… taking a requirement we have or information from the scientists and help translate it into numbers or an understanding for the instrument engineering teams so they know what the end goal is and what's needed for the instrument,” Scott shares.  

This could be helping explain how IDEX functions to the engineering teams for better understanding of the instrument specifications, supporting the mechanical engineers in achieving optimal mass spectrum data, or working with the electrical engineers to really understand what the signal looks like out of the detectorAn instrument which is used to discover that something is present somewhere, or to measure how much of something there is., how can they try to maintain the waveform and the signal integrity, as well as explaining  how the scientists are going to use that data and process it in data analysis. 

While having the capacity to bridge between plasma physics and engineering is an exceptional piece that Scott brings to the table, he also really loves what an instrument engineer gets to do. “I really like being able to do those end-to-end projects, start from a design and get to do the electrical and mechanical and then put it together and use it, build it, and have it function in some test. A lot of times that also involves some coding, so I don't just get to do some electrical mechanical [work], but I also get to do some coding or data analysis at the end. And that's the thing that I like the most about my job - the variety that [my position] allows me to do. I’m not just doing the same thing, every day. Every day is different, week to week it's different…I feel really lucky that I have the job that I have and get those opportunities,” he summarizes.

The path to instrument engineer was not one that Scott saw for himself as a young undergrad at University of Colorado, Boulder, where he remained undecided, but interested in science and math. “I never thought I was going to get a PhD. That wasn't a thing in my family. I didn't know anyone that had a PhD growing up,” Scott shares.  

It was a physics course that ended up flipping the switch for Scott. While he had high school physics, the college version just hitThe High-energy Ion Telescope (HIT) collects, measures, and maps very energetic particles coming through the heliosphere, as well as those flowing from the Sun. Near real-time energetic particle data collected by HIT will be used to better predict and warn scientists about Earth-bound solar storm activity. different. Still very new to the physics field, Scott was presented with the opportunity to work as a research student for Dr. Scott Robertson, who welcomed Scott into his lab research despite his inexperience. “Luckily, he saw promise in me anyways and he took me on and then he mentored me,” Scott reminisces. 

As he cut his chops in Dr. Robertson’s lab, Scott’s eyes were opened to possibilities with space physics, which keenly interesting him. He then shortly was presented with another life-changing opportunity for grad school: working with Dr. Robertson on a grant project to build and launch a rocket studying noctilucent clouds from Andøya, Norway. The grant provided Scott an experience to follow the complete design-build-test arc of a satellite project, follow it launch to data analysis, while opening the door into engineering for him. He assisted on the mechanical design for a course mass spectrometerAn instrument for measuring the intensity of radiation as a function of wavelength or particles as a function of energy., performed lab testing, built and tested the electronics, then helped assemble the complete instrument. He then followed it to Wallop’s Flight Facility in Virginia where vibe testing and deployment tests were completed, then launched it in Norway. 

Scott completed his PhD thesis using the rocket data obtained in Norway and invaluable experience in satellite engineering and the process steps for a mission. He enriched this experience by then attending JPL’s Planetary Science Summer School, where Scott gained additional experience in working through the life and death of a NASA mission and ensuring the proposed science goals are met. It was these two career experiences that prepared him for his work at LASP, where Scott has been for 12 years, working on many engineering projects, including several NASA missions instruments, including IDEX. Scott even had the opportunity to write control software for the Solar Spectral FluxThe amount of energy or particles flowing through a given area in a given amount of time. With particles, flux is expressed as counts per area per second. Radiometer (SSFR) instrument on the ARISE mission, help integrate the instrument on the C130 aircraft and fly with it over Arctic Sea ice.  

“I'd be both surprised and impressed at where I am today,” Scott reflects, considering how his teenage self might react to where he is today in his career. In fact, he almost didn’t go to grad school, had it not been for the response from a classmate when Scott shared his doubts in being able to succeed in a higher degree. “He looked at me dead in the eyes and was like if you're not good enough, then I'm not good enough, so you can definitely do this.” 

Scott remembers this moment as the one that gave him the confidence to pursue further in his field and keeps it in front of him when mentoring or supporting young adults at the beginning of their career. “You never know the weight that your words are going to have in changing a direction for someone's life. That conversation definitely made me [think] ‘I'm going to go to grad school.’ That was the day I decided ‘I'm going to do that.” Scott has all gratitude and no regrets in taking the opportunities he has been presented. 

Scott’s delight in having variety in his work life bubbles over into his personal life, as well. When not engineering solutions for instruments, he enjoys volleyball and several types of cycling, woodworking, plays a little guitar, and just bought a 3D printer that he is eager to start creating with. He also enjoys time with his young daughter and wife.