USU's 50 Years of Space Research the Topic of June 5 Sunrise Session

Utah State University ranks as one of the nation’s top funded space research institutions thanks to its nationally known Space Dynamics Laboratory. Douglas K. Lemon, SDL director, will discuss the lab, its impact on today’s space-based and terrestrial science and its many notable research projects during a USU Sunrise Session Research Breakfast.  

 

The Space Dynamics Laboratory is known for sending 500+ successful experiments into space and brings in $54 million per year in revenue, the majority coming from grants, contracts and appropriations.

 

SDL’s expertise in the development of sensors and calibration, small satellites and real-time intelligence, has made it an internationally known organization in the space arena. The lab is creating sensors that can be used in a multitude of ways to further the understanding of the universe, help with national security and understand global change.

“The nation faces many challenges such as understanding climate change, developing new sources of energy and continuing to provide national and homeland security,” Lemon said. “SDL can contribute significantly to the needed solutions through its outstanding people and unique facilities.”

Lemon will discuss several current projects at SDL, including the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) science instrument that will be sent into space in late 2009. WISE was built for NASA by SDL and is a super-cooled infrared space-based telescope designed to provide a full sky, infrared map that will advance the understanding of the universe. Additionally, it will enable the James Webb Space Telescope to more efficiently target objects of interest in space. The James Webb Space Telescope is the next-generation follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescope.

“Following a scheduled launch late this year, the SDL-built WISE instrument will collect millions of images from which hundreds of millions of astronomical objects will be catalogued,” said Lemon. “For decades, SDL has worked with NASA to map the skies, and our commitment to NASA continues as WISE prepares to chart space in infrared light, searching for the closest stars and asteroids, the origins of star systems and some of the brightest galaxies in the universe.”

He will also touch on research involving the Spirit III (a spatial infrared instrument), the small satellite program, EyePod (a 25 pound reconnaissance camera), the SOFIE (solar occultation for ice experiment), SABER (studies the influence of the sun and humans on the Earth’s atmosphere) and FIRST (far-infrared spectroscopy of the troposphere that measures how much heat from the Earth’s surface is going back into space).       

SDL was founded in 1959 and is a unit of the USU Research Foundation, a non-profit research corporation owned by the university. It employs more than 440 people and 28 percent of those are USU students. 

Lemon became the director of SDL in Oct. 2008. He holds a bachelor’s degree and doctorate in physics from USU and was awarded the university’s Robins Award in 1974.  Lemon’s career spans nearly 30 years in various roles at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in Washington state. From 2007 until his start with SDL in 2008, Lemon acted as PNNL’s director of laboratory strategy responsible for creating an institutional plan, identifying emerging trends and opportunities and overseeing the laboratory’s R&D initiatives. 

USU’s Sunrise Sessions is a breakfast lecture series held quarterly and designed to highlight timely and cutting-edge research conducted at Utah State University. The lecture is sponsored by Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah.

To RSVP, call 801-961-1340 or respond online.

Contacts: USU Vice President for Research Office, 435-797-1180
Writer: Maren Cartwright, 435-797-1355, maren.cartwright@usu.edu