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RBSPICE: Radiation Belt Storm Probes
Ion Composition Experiment


Overview

  

The job of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment (RBSPICE) is to determine how space weather creates the ring current formed around the Earth during solar storms, and how changes in that ring current affect the creation, acceleration, and loss of radiation belt particles.

 

RBSPICE is one of five instrument suites aboard the twin Van Allen Probes spacecraft, launched August 30, 2012, to study near-Earth space radiation and space weather. Originally named the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, the Van Allen Probes mission is part of NASA's Living With a Star program.


For information on Van Allen Probes experiments:

 

 








Updated 07/12/2022, Dr. Jerry W. Manweiler

RBSPICE-A TOTAL RUNTIME

2601 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes
Start Date: August 30, 2012, 4:05 a.m. EDT
End Date: October 14, 2019, 2:25 p.m. EDT

RBSPICE-B TOTAL RUNTIME

2511 days, 12 hours, 52 minutes
Start Date: August 30, 2012, 4:05 a.m. EDT
End Date: July 16, 2019, 4:27 p.m. EDT

QUICK FACTS

Manufacturer: Johns Hopkins APL built and operates the twin Van Allen Probes spacecraft

Nominal Mission Duration: 2 years

Destination: Earth's radiation belts

Orbit: Elliptical orbits transversing the radiation belts

Science Payload: 5 instrument suites conducting related experiments  

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