Meteor Detection and UV Spectral Analysis System

The elemental composition of meteors is one of the keys to understanding their origin and in turn the evolution of the solar system. Spectroscopic measurement of the emission spectra of meteors as they are heated by entry into the Earth's atmosphere can yield this information. An objective-grating spectrograph instrument payload designed to capture the ultraviolet emission spectra of metoers is proposed. This Shuttle and or Space Station payload will detect and record randomly occurring transient upper atmosphere phenomena such as meteors and upper atmospheric lightning. In this Phase II effort Princeton Scientific Instruments will complete the design and fabrication of the high frame rate CCD camera portion of the payload. Villanova University will complete their thermal analysis and design to include the proposed International Space Station payload SUMS (Slitless UV Meteor Spectrometer). It should be noted that high speed, real time, image analysis is of broad interest with applications such as missile guidance and cell morphology in biological image data reduction and image analysis.