Dave Sheppard

NASA · Solar System Exploration Division

One objective of a lander mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is to detect liquid water within 30 km as well as characterizing the subsurface ocean. In order to satisfy this objective, water within the ice shell must also be identified. Inductive electromagnetic (EM) methods are optimal for water detection on Europa because even a small fraction o...

One objective of a lander mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa is to detect liquid water within 30 km as well as characterizing the subsurface ocean. In order to satisfy this objective, water within the ice shell must also be identified. Inductive electromagnetic (EM) methods are optimal for water detection on Europa because even a small fraction o...

NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission is currently investigating the local plasma environment of the inner heliosphere (<0.25 R⊙) using both in situ and remote sensing instrumentation. Connecting signatures of microphysical particle heating and acceleration processes to macroscale heliospheric structure requires sensitive measurements of electrom...

The Juno Magnetic Field investigation (MAG) characterizes Jupiter’s planetary magnetic field and magnetosphere, providing the first globally distributed and proximate measurements of the magnetic field of Jupiter. The magnetic field instrumentation consists of two independent magnetometer sensor suites, each consisting of a tri-axial Fluxgate Magne...

NASA’s Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission will make the first in situ measurements of the solar corona and the birthplace of the solar wind. The FIELDS instrument suite on SPP will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, the properties of in situ plasma waves, electron density and temperature profiles, and interplanetary radio emissio...

The MAVEN magnetic field investigation is part of a comprehensive particles and fields subsystem that will measure the magnetic and electric fields and plasma environment of Mars and its interaction with the solar wind. The magnetic field instrumentation consists of two independent tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer sensors, remotely mounted at the ou...

The Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) investigation on the NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes (now named the Van Allen Probes) mission provides key wave and very low frequency magnetic field measurements to understand radiation belt acceleration, loss, and transport. The key science objectives and the contributio...

This paper describes the design, fabrication and testing of the Anti-Coincidence Detector (ACD) for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT). The ACD is LATs first-level defense against the charged cosmic ray background that outnumbers the gamma rays by 3–5 orders of magnitude. The ACD covers the top and four side...

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) is a pair-production high-energy (> 20 MeV) gamma-ray telescope being built by an international partnership of astrophysicists and particle physicists for a satellite launch in 2006, designed to study a wide variety of high-energy astrophysical phenomena. As part of the dev...

The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) is a pair-production high-energy (>20 MeV) gamma-ray telescope being built by an international partnership of astrophysicists and particle physicists for a satellite launch in 2006, designed to study a wide variety of high-energy astrophysical phenomena. As part of the deve...

The Transient Gamma-Ray Spectrometer aboard the Wind spacecraft in deep space has observed gamma-ray bursts and solar events for four years. The germanium detector in the instrument has gradually deteriorated from exposure to the cosmic-ray flux. Low-energy tailing and loss of efficiency, attributed to hole trapping and conversion of the germanium...

We describe an innovative detector designed primarily for the study of cosmic gamma-ray bursts aboard interplanetary spacecraft. The experiment is a fully functional, low cost, low mass, low-power instrument, which, when combined with other similar instruments, has the capability of localizing bursts to arcminute precision. The burst monitor is bas...

We have been investigating the operational properties of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) microstrip detectors by using SVX ASIC readout electronics. This research is in conjunction with the development of a CZT-based, next generation gamma-ray telescope for use in the gamma-ray Burst ArcSecond Imaging and Spectroscopy (BASIS) experiment. CZT microstri...

The renewal of the Ulysses mission to the year 2001, and the failure of Mars Observer, once more leave the Interplanetary Network with only two widely spaced components. We have therefore developed and begun to build a small GRB detector for the Russian Mars {close_quote}96 mission. The first flight unit has now been delivered to Russia for spacecr...