So what's all this about a #Rocket #launch you say?
We're designing the Solar eruptioN Integral Field Spectrograph instrument (aka #SNIFSrocket). This is a telescope and UV spectrograph which will launch next March from #PokerFlatResearchRange just north of #Fairbanks #Alaska.
We're not working on the engines or anything. We're building the payload, which is 17 inches diameter and about 6 ft long. It'll be plugged onto a nosecone and engines from #NASA.

Some more #Introduction
As a grad student, I'm helping to build the #SNIFSrocket, a #SoundingRocket payload which will study the #Sun.
A sounding rocket is a small (20 in diameter, 60 ft long) science rocket that launches, gets above the atmosphere for a few minutes to do #Science, and then comes back down.
We're hoping to study fast-moving events on the sun called #SolarSpicules, using high-energy Lyman-Alpha observations.
#SolarPhysics #HelioPhysics #AstroPhysics #GradStudentDaily