Mission Integration Lab opens at the University of Arizona Tech Park
A new research facility opened today at the University of Arizona Tech Park.
The Mission Integration Lab is groundbreaking for balloon-borne astronomy experiments and missions.
"A beacon going up, and people from around the world can know that something special is happening here," said Dr. Robert Robbins. "They already know that because we're the top astronomy and lunar and planetary space program in the world. But this just adds another dimension."
The lab will allow researchers and engineers to build and test hardware for those experiments.
It features an overhead crane and has space for an environmental chamber to simulate conditions at the edge of space, which is a fuzzy, ill-defined transition zone between earth's atmosphere and space.
Balloon-borne astronomy fills an important gap between ground-based observatories and space telescopes.
