Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Illustration of photophoresis devices and their uses.
Image credit: Ben Schafer and Jong-hyoung Kim

A slice of Earth’s atmosphere seemingly gets no respect.

There is a high-altitude expanse that is often referred to by scientists as the “ignorosphere,” an under-studied and under-appreciated atmospheric layer because it is above surveillance by aerial vehicles and too low for steady monitoring by speeding satellite sensors.

A research team has come up with a way to grab data from that overlooked region of the unknown. They have tested and validated lightweight nanofabricated structures that can passively float at a level of our planet’s atmosphere that stretches from 50 to 85 kilometers altitude, a region tagged as Earth’s mesosphere.

Time-lapse photos of a micro-structure flying when illuminated. Proof-of-concept experiments support use of such devices to fly in the uncharted mesosphere using photophoresis.
Image credit: Ben Schafer, Jong-hyoung Kim, and Gyeong-Seok Hwang

Diagram depicts airflow around a flying device.
Image credit: Ben Schafer and Jong-hyoung Kim

For details, go to my new AIAA Aerospace America story — An upcoming demonstration could shed light on this little-studied atmospheric layer – at:

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/an-upcoming-demonstration-could-shed-light-on-this-little-studied-atmospheric-layer/?amp=1