Detail View: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Collection: Inspection of the Coating on the Starshine Mirrors
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Name of Image:
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Inspection of the Coating on the Starshine Mirrors
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Full Description:
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In this photograph, Vince Huegele of the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) Space Optics Manufacturing Technology Center (SOMTC) inspects the coating on the mirrors for Starshine 3, a satellite that resembles a high-tech disco ball that was placed into Earth orbit. The sphere, which is covered by hundreds of quarter-sized mirrors that reflect sunlight to observers on the ground, helps students study the effects of solar activity on the Earth's atmosphere. Ed White Middle School in Huntsville, Alabama is among 500 schools worldwide whose students helped grind and polish mirrors for the Starshine 3 satellite as a part of the Starshine Project. The total of up to 1,500 mirrors will improve the sunlight flash rate and make the satellite more visible at twilight as it orbits the Earth. These mirrors have been coated with a scratch-resistant, anti-oxidizing layer of silicon dioxide by optical engineers and technicians at the Hill Air Force Base in Utah and MSFC. Starshine-3 was launched on an Athena I unmarned launch vehicle out of the Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska, on September 29, 2001. Starshine 3 is nearly 37 inches (1 meter) in diameter, weighs 200 pounds (91 kilograms), and carries 1500 mirrors that were polished by approximately 40,000 students in 1,000 schools in 30 countries. Three small, optically-reflective spherical Starshine student satellites have been designed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and built by an informal volunteer coalition of organizations and individuals in the U.S. and Canada. This coalition, called Project Starshine, is headquartered in Monument, Colorado.
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Date of Image:
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2001-04-01
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Category:
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Space Science
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term:
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Mirror
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facet_what:
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Earth
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facet_where:
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Alabama
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facet_when:
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September 29, 2001
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facet_when_year:
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2001
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Reference Number:
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MSFC-75-SA-4105-2C
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MIX #:
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0101390
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NIX #:
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MSFC-0101390
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MSFC Negative Number:
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0101390
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UID:
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SPD-MARSH-0101390
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original url:
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http://mix.msfc.nasa.gov/abstracts.php?p=2489
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