A professor from the University of Coimbra (UC) will lead a scientific experiment launched by the Space X rocket towards the International Space Station of the European Space Agency (ESA), that higher education institution reported this Monday.
Rui Curado Silva, professor at the UC Faculty of Science and Technology, in collaboration with Beira Interior University researcher Jorge Maia, leads the GLOSS scientific experiment, which focuses on space telescope sensorswhich will be launched in the early hours of Tuesday, by the Falcon 9 rocket, from Space X, towards the ESA International Space Station, indicated the UC, in a statement sent to the Lusa agency.
The Space X rocket will carry sensors for space telescopes capable of capturing images of the sky in the X-ray and gamma bands, which will later be installed outside the station.
According to the statement, the sensors will be exposed, in addition to radiation, to extreme temperature variations (which can reach -150ºC and +120ºC), for approximately one year.
Subsequently, these sensors will be returned to Coimbra, where “the level of operational degradation will be evaluated and their performance will be compared with the performance of the sensors before sending them into space,” said Rui Curado Silva, quoted in the UC statement.
According to the researcher from the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP), based on this analysis the team will be able to validate or not the sensors that will be integrated into future space telescopes for high-energy astrophysics.
The GLOSS experiment is funded by a program of ESA and the Portuguese Space Agency.
The project includes teams from the Astrophysics and Space Sciences Observatory of Bologna, Italy, the National Institute of Astrophysics of Italy, and the Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism of the National Research Council of Parma, Italy.
Source: Observadora
