Current and Recent Missions

TRACERS mission patch

TRACERS

Dr. Miles is PI for TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission, consisting of two identical satellites in tandem orbit, which launched July 23, 2025, from Vandenberg Space Force Base. This mission will help answer long-standing questions key to understanding space weather, particularly how the Sun transfers energy, mass, and momentum to near-Earth space.

Illustration of ICI-5 sounding rocket

ICI-5bis

ICI-5bis will study plasma turbulence and irregularities in the auroral ionosphere as a contribution to the international Grand Challenge Initiative – MLT (Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere). 

OCHRE Trajectory Over TRACERS orbit over Earth

OCHRE

Observing Cusp High-altitude Reconnection and Electrodynamics

The OCHRE student-led sounding rocket mission will study cusp dynamics in the Earth’s magnetosphere and help train the next generation of space physicists and instrumentalists. OCHRE will be launched in the Winter 2025-26 from Andøya Space Center, Norway to coincide with a flyover from the  TRACERS spacecraft mission.

ACES II logo

ACES-II

This mission, led by Scott Bounds, launched two rockets into an aurora to measure the interaction between solar magnetic particles and the Earth’s magnetic field. The rockets were launched in Andøya, Norway in 2022.

 

Instrumentation Projects

MAGIC patch

MAGIC

The Miles Lab team built a fluxgate magnetometer as part of the TRACERS mission. MAGIC delivers world-class magnetic measurements without relying on the legacy ring-cores used by most other providers and can be scaled and tuned for other applications.

 

 

 

Chimera logo

CHIMERA Hybrid Magnetometer

The CHIMERA hybrid magnetometer for Smallsats combines search coil and fluxgate magnetometers into one package. CHIMERA is a hybrid magnetometer that operates simultaneously as a search coil magnetometer and as a fluxgate magnetometer, offering improved operational flexibility compared to conventional two-instrument approaches. Utilizing digital signal processing and demodulation, this instrument shifts key magnetometer functions from analog electronics to field-programmable gate array-based digital processing and was test-flown on the ACES-II suborbital rocket mission

CABOOM logo

CABOOM

CubeSat Articulated Boom Option Optimization in Microgravity

This project demonstration involved a CubeSat boom arm with a magnetometer for surveying the Earth’s magnetic field. The zero-gravity test flight, which included a test model mounted with optical sensors, characterized the deployment system and its repeatability. 

The goal of this flight test was to validate and analyze two enhanced versions of the CubeSat magnetometer boom. During a parabolic flight experiment, both booms were repeatedly deployed, and their deployment dynamics and final orientation were tracked using motion capture technology.

Cassiope logo

e-POP

Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe

The Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e‑POP) is a research payload on the CASSIOPE spacecraft that is collecting new data on space storms and associated plasma outflows from the Earth’s ionosphere.

Testing Centers

The Department of Physics and Astronomy offers trained support and operational staff­ able to develop fixturing, integration, and test plans to meet your project needs.

Services include wide temperature range vacuum testing, vibration testing, mass testing, thermal testing, and EMI/EMC Testing.

magnetic furnace

Magnetic Furnace

This furnace is used to manufacture a critical space-instrument component called a ring core, which is central to the functioning of a fluxgate magnetometer, an instrument used for measuring low-frequency magnetic fields. 

Read more in this Iowa Now article.

vacuum test uiowa

Thermal Vacuum Test Chamber

Wide Temperature Range Vacuum Testing

The chamber is used to testing of spacecraft components under simulated environmental space conditions such as cold or high temperatures.

News

Team working on SWIM sensor for the ICI-5bis Suborbital Sounding Rocket.

Making High Fidelity Fluxgate Cores for Space Science and Space Weather Missions

The Miles Lab, sponsored by NASA, is restoring and advancing the nation’s capability to make high-fidelity magnetic field measurements needed to investigate space weather that can impact our communication and power grids on Earth and our assets in space.
Aurora from ACES II mission

Study discovers electromagnetic waves can make the northern lights glow brighter

A study from University of Iowa researchers reveals that the aurora borealis — the northern lights — appear brighter when electromagnetic waves in space interact with particles inside the aurora. Connor Feltman, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa, examined data from two rockets that were launched into the aurora from Andøya, Norway, in 2022, an Iowa-led experiment known as the ACES-II mission.
Rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

NASA Launches Mission to Study Earth’s Magnetic Shield

NASA’s newest mission, TRACERS, soon will begin studying how Earth’s magnetic shield protects our planet from the effects of space weather. Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off at 11:13 a.m. PDT (2:13 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
illustration showing reconnection in Earth’s cusp region

Space Science Reviews Publishes TRACERS Article Collection

The journal Space Science Reviews is publishing a collection of articles about the University of Iowa-led Tandem Reconnection And Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission. This collection presents the science objectives of the mission, descriptions of the design and calibration of the plasma instruments, and other important aspects of the mission.
Geophysical Research Letterscover

Iowa researchers study ionosphere’s role in aurora

Researchers led by the University of Iowa have learned more about how Earth’s uppermost atmospheric layer may contribute to aurora, the colorful dance of lights in the skies in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.