Aerospace Engineer Bradley Pafchek and Aerospace Instrumentation Mechanical Engineer Matt Rubly assembling a payload in an SSL clean room.

Our Impact

The UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) has led the way in space exploration and technological innovation since its inception in 1959. Our discoveries in physics and planetary exploration help protect the nation’s critical infrastructure from harmful space weather events. Our design and instrumentation allow spacecraft to touch the Sun and probe distant worlds. Our research is at the forefront of atmospheric, planetary and cosmology studies. Our mission operations center navigates spacecraft in Earth orbit and beyond for a fraction of the cost of a government-run facility.

SSL is one of only two university-based institutions in the U.S. capable of designing, building, managing and operating space missions and instrumentation. Our partnerships with the US government, private industries and philanthropic organizations make it possible.

Predicting solar weather

SSL scientists were the first to detect the x-rays emitted by solar flares in 1961 thereby launching the field of x-ray astronomy. That discovery led SSL to develop and lead the RHESSI mission, which revealed the basic physics of solar flares. SSL also built instruments for several other missions that track dangerous coronal mass ejections that can damage satellites and electrical infrastructure.

Our scientists still needed a closer look at the Sun, and so our technologists designed and built instruments for the Parker Solar Probe that gathered electric and magnetic field data within the Sun’s atmosphere, which allowed our scientists to confirm that magnetic forces drive the solar events that create adverse space weather. The PADRE mission, a low-cost satellite designed and built at SSL, is measuring x-rays from solar flares in a new way with the aim of developing better predictive models of harmful solar emissions.  

Protecting critical infrastructure

Thanks to a partnership with the US Air Force and the Office of Naval Research, an SSL scientist discovered parallel electric fields in the Earth’s magnetosphere in 1976. This led SSL to develop and lead the FAST mission, which launched in 1996 and revealed how particles from space plasmas are accelerated into the Earth’s atmosphere to create auroras. FAST was one of the first missions that was not led by a government employed team, and it demonstrated that missions could be led and operated by SSL at a fraction of the cost of a government-run mission.

SSL led and contributed to a fleet of missions that investigated the complex dynamic between the Earth and the Sun. Through missions like ICON and THEMIS, our scientists were able to track how a magnetic tug of war between the magnetosphere and the solar wind causes geomagnetic storms that can disrupt navigation systems. SSL also contributed instrumentation to the TRACERS mission, which will investigate the outer boundary of the magnetosphere, and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, which will investigate the outermost layer of the atmosphere.

Exploring distant worlds

SSL developed and led the MAVEN mission, which revealed how the Martian atmosphere is lost to the solar wind. We’re continuing that research with ESCAPADE, which will study Mars’ hybrid magnetosphere. MAVEN and ESCAPADE will play a key role in monitoring conditions and relaying communications for missions that may soon take astronauts to the Martian surface. 

SSL began working with extra-terrestrial sample return investigations beginning in 2004. Our scientists examined comet fragments collected by the Stardust Mission and solar wind material collected by the Genesis mission. When Genesis crashed after re-entering the atmosphere, SSL scientists saved the science mission by devising a means of de-contaminating the samples. Sample-return experts at SSL went on to study material gathered from an icy asteroid by the OSIRIS-REx mission. Their research revealed that liquid water once existed on these tiny worlds. 

The Psyche mission will perform the first up close investigation of a metal asteroid, and our Enceladus Organic Analyzer, which is intended for use on a future mission to Saturn’s moon Enceladus, will allow in-situ analysis of water plumes that blast into orbit from the moon’s surface. 

Demystifying our universe

SSL scientists have made numerous contributions to the field of astrophysics. Through dozens of high-altitude balloon experiments, SSL scientists have searched the skies for anti-matter and gamma rays. In addition, our technicians built many components for the DESI Survey, which is charting dark energy up to 11 lightyears away.