BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — One-and-a-half years after a mirror created by Brigham Young University students left Earth on board the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, a second mirror — this one on the Venus Express — was successfully launched Nov. 8 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
The BYU mirror is part of the ASPERA device designed to measure the rate at which Venus' atmosphere is being eroded by solar winds, which has implications for Earth's own weather system. ASPERA stands for "analyzer of space plasma and energetic atoms."
"Students did great work on this, and we are all very excited to see the fruits of their labors go into space," said David Allred, BYU professor of physics and project adviser.
"For the undergraduates who got to be involved in research, this is about the coolest thing they could imagine. It's really a once-in-a-career experience for them to have something they've worked on orbit another planet."