WHAT WE MAKE
We can manufacture parts, instruments, payloads, and satellites to withstand the rigors of spaceflight, and our facilities are used by many researchers who have special needs for their experiments.
WHAT WE DO
SSL projects tackle fundamental problems in atmospheric science, space physics, heliophysics, planetary science and astronomy. We invent, build, and operate our satellites from our laboratory in the Berkeley hills.
WHO WE ARE
SSL has scientists, engineers, and craftspeople with a wide range of skills to create new instrumentation and novel technologies for research projects. We welcome partnerships on projects requiring unique capabilities found only at SSL.
ICON Mission releases first batch of data on sea of charged particles in the Earths Ionosphere
On June 22, NASA’s ICON team released scientific data collected during the spacecraft’s first eight months in orbit to the public. The data release features observations from ICON’s four instruments — MIGHTI, FUV, EUV, and IVM — which have been observing the ins and outs of the ionosphere, the sea of charged particles high in
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UC Berkeley supports #ShutDownSTEM and Black Lives Matter
Paul Alivisatos, executive vice chancellor and provost, sent the following message to deans on Tuesday (6/9): As we briefly discussed earlier today in Council of Deans, tomorrow, Wednesday, June 10 is a national day of action as indicated on social media: #Strike4BlackLives, #ShutDownSTEM, #ShutDownAcademia. This is an opportunity for us, as campus leaders, to carefully
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First Map of Mars Electric Currents
Over billions of years, the solar wind stripped Mars of much of its atmosphere – but it turns out, the solar wind also generates electric currents that create a magnetosphere around the planet. A new global map of these electric currents from the #NASAMAVEN team explains the intricacies of this process. The findings from the
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Parker Solar Probe Begins Longest Science Observation Campaign
On May 9, 2020, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe began its longest observation campaign to date. The spacecraft, which has already completed four progressively closer orbits around the Sun, activated its instruments at a distance of 62.5 million miles from the Sun’s surface, some 39 million miles farther from the Sun than a typical solar encounter.
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The Hubble Space Telescope Turned 30 and 11 Years Ago Today STS-125 Launched for the Final Servicing Mission
May 11th, 2009 Shuttle STS-125 Atlantis roared into space from the Kennedy Space Center for the final Hubble Servicing Mission. On board were a myriad of instruments to keep the Hubble Space Telescope working well into the future. Space Shuttle Atlantis carried two new instruments to the Hubble Space Telescope, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and
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UC Berkeley Space Sciences Lab to build NOAA space weather instrument
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $7.5 million contract to the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, to design, build and test an ion sensor for the Space Weather Follow-On (SWFO) Lagrange-1 mission. Under the contract announced May 1, the Space Sciences Laboratory will build the Supra Thermal Ion Sensor
-> Continue reading UC Berkeley Space Sciences Lab to build NOAA space weather instrument
Sudden magnetic “switchbacks” in the solar wind
A new paper suggests sudden magnetic “switchbacks” in the solar wind — observed by Parker Solar Probe during its November 2018 solar flyby — are tied to a theory first proposed more than two decades ago about how the Sun’s magnetic field migrates. https://go.nasa.gov/2Si1lnM When an open magnetic field line encounters a closed magnetic loop
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Mario Marckwordt (1957-2020)
All, I got a call from Mario’s wife Annette this morning telling me the sad news. Mario had a heart attack last night and died suddenly. The family is in shock, as am I. He was a good friend and colleague. We worked together for over 20 years. Mario was a happy and funny guy.
-> Continue reading Mario Marckwordt (1957-2020)
Selected Projects
ICON
The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) will be the newest addition to NASA’s fleet of Heliophysics satellites. Led by UC Berkeley, scientists and engineers around the world are coming together to make ICON a reality.
Parker Solar Probe
Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the sun. Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.
GRIPS
The balloon-borne Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares (GRIPS) instrument will provide a near-optimal combination of high-resolution imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry of solar-flare gamma-ray/hard X-ray emissions
THEMIS
THEMIS answers longstanding fundamental questions concerning the nature of the substorm instabilities that abruptly and explosively release solar wind energy stored within the Earth’s magnetotail.