The UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) is the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's largest university space research group. MSSL is part of the Department of Space and Climate Physics at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(UCL), one of the first universities in the world to conduct space research. Since its establishment, MSSL has participated in 35

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

missions, 10 of which are currently in operation, and in over 200 sounding rocket experiments. It takes its name from Mullard Limited, and is located in Holmbury St Mary in the Surrey Hills AONB, near the town of

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

in the county of

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

In 1957 Sir Harrie Massey of UCL directed the first Skylark rocket experiments. In 1962 Massey led a team from UCL,

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

and the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

that developed many of the instruments on Ariel 1, the world's first multinational spacecraft. By 1966 the demands had outgrown the laboratory space available in London and Massey asked his colleague Robert Boyd to set up a laboratory, with generous funding from the British electronics company

Mullard Mullard Limited was a British manufacturer of electronics, electronic components. The Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd. of Southfields, London, was founded in 1920 by Captain Stanley R. Mullard, who had previously designed thermionic valves (US ...

which had helped to set up the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. At that time, Boyd was the leading British researcher in space science. Joint funding from Mullard and UCL led to the expansion of his research programme and resulted in the creation of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) in 1966. Dedicated premises were selected near

in an oak-panelled house at Holmbury St. Mary, set in beautiful grounds, where the laboratory has been based ever since. By this time the UCL group had been involved in providing instrumentation for over 100 rocket launches, mainly from the Woomera Test Range in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, but with the recent founding of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), with Massey as chairman, they were increasing involved with European as well as American projects. They produced the electron spectrometer for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Cassini mission, the spectrometer for ESA's Herschel Space Observatory and the UV/Optical Telescope for the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer.

MSSL Research Groups

Scientific research groups at MSSL are split into two primary areas: Astrophysics, and Solar System groups, complemented by the Instrumentation/Technology Innovation groups that work on space hardware.

Astrophysics

In synergy with space science missions, members of the astrophysics group actively work on a wide range of astronomy and astrophysics topics.

Solar System

Using data from spacecraft throughout the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

, MSSL's Solar System groups carry out research into the Sun, Earth and planetary bodies.

Climate Extremes

The group's main foci are the prediction and monitoring of worldwide weather and climate extremes.

Planetary Science

This group's science themes are planetary magnetospheres, moon interactions, surfaces and comets studying planetary systems across the Solar System and beyond.

Solar Physics

The group works on several solar physics hardware projects, mostly relating to fabricating instruments that work at ultra-violet and X-ray wavelengths, and studying the data that they return.

Space Plasma Physics

This research group studies the physical interaction between the Earth and the Sun and the fundamental physics of space plasmas

Imaging

Developing enabling imaging technologies and corresponding datasets to allow new scientific understanding with applications centred on space and climate physics.

Instrumentation/Technology Innovation

New technologies and advances in instrumentation through research enable the design and build of scientific space instruments.

MSSL Facilities

Solar UK Research Facility (SURF)

As a part of the research undertaken within the Solar & Stellar Physics group, SURF collaborates with Yohkoh, SOHO/CDS, and TRACE to produce CHIANTI The CHIANTI package is freely available to all researchers subject to the condition of proper acknowledgement in all resulting publications.

The Grid

The ''European Grid of Solar Observations'' (EGSO) is a project funded by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

under its Fifth Framework Programme. EGSO uses Grid technology to create the fabric of a ''virtual solar observatory''. MSSL is involved in three components of the Grid. *AstroGrid: As part of the UK e-Science Initiative, UCL-MSSL is responsible for servicing as a repository for solar data from AstroGrid. Astrophysical and solar-terrestrial data are held elsewhere in the UK. *GRIDSTART: In order to encourage collaboration between the Grid projects that the

is funding, a cluster has been created under the GRIDSTART Accompanying Measure project. EGSO is one of the founding partners of GRIDSTART. *UCL Grid: As part of University College London, MSSL is also involved in UCL Grid activities.

Technology Management Group (TMG)

TMG offers research facilities and consultancy to support the development, management and exploitation of technology within an enterprise context through two main centres. *UCL Centre for Systems Engineering (UCLse) works with the UCL Departments of Biochemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering Computer Science, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering to bring together expertise to develop systems engineering research, teaching and technology transfer. *Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems (CAIS) was formed in 1993 to promote and encourage interaction between Industry and Researchers at UCL working in the area of Advanced Instrumentation. It provides a base for the Postgraduate Training Partnership with Sira, has designed and implemented an MRes Course in Instrumentation, has introduced an MSc in Applied Instrumentation, and, in collaboration with the Centre for Systems Engineering, has created an MSc Course in Systems Engineering Management. In the commercial field, CAIS has formed the Specialised Instrumentation Group which has about thirty small and medium-sized companies as members, providing seminars and forums covering topics of interest. CAIS also manages the University College London KTP Centre, and now co-ordinates Postgraduate training for a number of Faraday Partnerships. Scientist holding a CubeSat

Smart Optics

The Smart Optics Faraday Partnership is an active network of more than 100 businesses and academic groups with the common aim of generating new enabling optical technologies and successfully applying them commercially in a diverse range of markets. Smart Optics working on such products as the Smart

Ophthalmoscope Ophthalmoscopy, also called funduscopy, is a test that allows a health professional to see inside the fundus of the eye and other structures using an ophthalmoscope (or funduscope). It is done as part of an eye examination and may be done as part ...

, illuminated retail signage, and ultra precision surfaces. Faraday Partnerships are intended to promote improved interaction between UK research institutions and industry.

Test facilities

The MSSL Mechanical engineering group operates a number of test facilities which include a vacuum bakeout facility, thermal vacuum facility, a vibration facility, a cleanroom facility, Laser and Sputter coating facility, a Westbond wire bonding facility,

ultrasonic cleaning Ultrasonic cleaning is a process that uses ultrasound (usually from 20 to 40 kHz) to agitate a fluid, with a cleaning effect. Ultrasonic cleaners come in a variety of sizes, from small desktop units with an internal volume of less than , to large ...

facilities, and a mechanical engineering workshop.

MSSL participation in space missions

Since it was formed, the MSSL has worked on a number of different

solar physics Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics and astrophysics. Because the Sun is uniquely situated for close-range observing (other stars cannot be re ...

hardware projects. Its earliest involvement came with an experiment on Ariel 1 that made the first spectroscopic X-ray observations of

solar flare A solar flare is a relatively intense, localized emission of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and ot ...

s. Other instruments were later flown on the OSO-4, ESRO-II, OSO-5, and OSO-6 missions. Instruments built have also flown on the Solar Maximum Mission, the Coronal Helium Abundance Spacelab Experiment (CHASE) which was part of the Spacelab-2 missions. More recently, MSSL has played a significant role in the

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

mission. MSSL engineers participated in building and testing the Ultraviolet Optical Telescope (UVOT) instrument on Swift. MSSL has participated in the Hinode and

STEREO Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

missions. For Hinode, MSSL led a consortium building the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) which provides plasma diagnostic in the solar

chromosphere A chromosphere ("sphere of color", from the Ancient Greek words χρῶμα (''khrôma'') 'color' and σφαῖρα (''sphaîra'') 'sphere') is the second layer of a Stellar atmosphere, star's atmosphere, located above the photosphere and below t ...

, transition region and corona.

Collaborative agencies

* NASA - Ultraviolet, Visible and Gravitational Astrophysics (USA) * NASA - Applied Information Systems Research Program (USA) * NASA - Living With a Star (USA) * Chandra Emission Line Project (USA) * ''Agenzia Spaziale Italiana'' (ASI, Italy) * ''MUIR, Ministero dell'Istruzione dell'Universita' e della Ricerca''

References

External links

Mullard Space Science Laboratory official website
{{Authority control Departments of University College London Space science organizations 1966 establishments in the United Kingdom Space programme of the United Kingdom University and college laboratories in the United Kingdom