Miles Research Lab

Experimental space physics and spaceflight instrumentation

NASA Administrator Visit

Missions

MAGIC patch

MAGIC

This project involves building a fluxgate magnetometer as part of the TRACERS mission. 

 

 

 

ACES-II Miles Uiowa

ACES-II

This mission will launch two rockets into an aurora to measure the interaction between solar magnetic particles and the Earth’s magnetic field.The rockets will be launched in Andøya, Norway in 2021.

 

ICI 5 mission

ICI-5

Investigation of Cusp Irregularities-5

The ICI-5 mission launched on a NASA sounding rocket from a Norwegian launch site  on Nov. 26. The mission hopes to further investigate Earth's polar cusps.

 

 

The ICI-4 Rocket as it lifts off from Andøya. Photo: Trond Abrahamsen, Andøya Space Center

ICI-4

Investigation of Cusp Irregularities-4

The combination of American electron clouds and Norwegian northern lights spells trouble for navigation and communication in the Northern regions. The ICI-4 mission helped provide knowledge to predict the weather in space.

CubeSat

Ex-Alta 1 CubeSat

This CubeSat collects information on space weather with the help of a miniaturized version of a science instrument called a magnetometer, an essential tool for studying solar storms.

Projects

CABOOM testing

CABOOM

CubeSat Articulated Boom Option Optimization in Microgravity

Booms are used to keep magnetic field instruments at a distance from the rocket or satellite. Booms are small and need to be tested in microgravity.

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.

Hybrid Fluxgate and Search Coil Magnetometer

CHIMERA Hybrid Magnetometer

This project involves designing and building a magnetic field detector, called a magnetometer, that can operate on a new generation of satellites that are as small as a loaf of bread.

Tesseract

Experiential Student Learning

Andoya rocket

Sounding Rocket Field School

 Students took part in an intensive, international science program to design, build, and fly a sounding rocket.

Read more

Josh Larson

Undergrad Advanced Lab

Students learn physics through new or advanced experiments.

Go to PHYS:4750 for more info 

ISU balloon launch

Space Instrument Design Class

Students work in small groups to develop, build, and test a small instrument which will be flown to a 20-mile altitude on a meteorological balloon provided by Iowa State University.

See class description

 

Lab Equipment

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.

Chamber Specs

News

NASA Officials visit Iowa to discuss TRACERS mission

NASA touches down in Iowa to talk TRACERS

NASA delegates visited the University of Iowa on March 7-8 to learn about the largest externally funded research project in institutional history. The NASA group included Joseph Westlake, the new head of the agency’s heliophysics division, which oversees missions involving the Earth and sun. The heliophysics portfolio includes Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), the $115 million mission being led by Iowa. TRACERS will study interactions between the sun and the Earth that spawn the Northern and Southern lights. Researchers at Iowa and other participating institutions have been designing, building, and assembling the instruments, hardware, and software in preparation for a scheduled launch in April 2025.

Miles Named PI of TRACERS Mission

Associate Professor David Miles was named Principal Investigator of the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) Mission following the passing of Prof. Craig Kletzing in August 2023.

Scientists earn funding to build miniature magnetometer

Scientists at the University of Iowa have been awarded funding to create a magnetic field instrument small enough to be outfitted on mini satellites that would be launched into space.
Suman Sherwani in Forbes

Sherwani lands on Forbes list of celebrated young innovators

It’s been a whirlwind 12 months since Suman Sherwani graduated from Iowa. She’s working on NASA-funded rocket and satellite missions in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy, and is featured on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for science.

Former Students

Josh Larsen uiowa physics

Josh Larson

Larson, graduated in May 2019 with a double major in electrical engineering and physics, built and tested instruments for space missions, participated in an intense, weeklong program building and flying a rocket in Norway, and created an experiment to help fellow undergraduates visualize and understand a branch of physics that involves hot, ionized gases called plasmas.

In fall 2019 Larson entered the graduate program in experimental plasma physics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Suman Sherwani uiowa Department of Physics and Astronomy

Suman Sherwani

Suman graduated with a BSE in electrical and computer engineering in December 2019 after participating in the Canada Norway Sounding Rocket program, an intensive, four-and-a-half-day international student exercise in Norway to design, build, and fly a sounding rocket toward the atmosphere’s outer boundaries. She is an Avionics Technical Project Manager at Rocket Factory Augsburg - RFA and was  featured on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for science.

Samuel Hisel

Sam Hisel

Sam worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Miles Lab before graduating with a BSE degree in Electrical Engineering. He is now a engineering associate in the Miles Lab.