Use of a personal computer for the real-time reception and analysis of data from a sounding rocket experiment

In September 1988, the Earth and Planetary Atmospheres Group of the Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley flew an experiment on a high-altitude sounding rocket launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The experiment, BEARS (Berkeley EUV (extreme ultraviolet) Airglow Rocket Spectrometer), was designed to obtain spectroscopic data on the composition and structure of the Earth's upper atmosphere. The objectives of BEARS and the BEARS experiment, the computer interface and software, the use of remote data transmission, and calibration, integration, and flight operations are discussed.<
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