Big Science on a Small Budget: A University Sounding Rocket

The High-altitude Ozone Measuring and Educational Rocket (HOMER), a pilot for the NASA Student Launch Program, was a suborbital rocket investigation conducted by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium (CSGC). The HOMER mission provided: a unique educational opportunity for hands-on involvement by students in colleges and universities throughout Colorado; measurements of ozone and atmospheric constituents which affect ozone in the Earth's atmosphere; a demonstration of advanced and low-cost technologies that enable these measurements; and an intercomparison of measurement techniques. HOMER was launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia on August 12, 1996. HOMER is a follow-on payload to two previous Colorado Space Grant missions; the Colorado Student Ozone Atmospheric Rocket (CSOAR), and the Cooperative Student High Altitude Research Payload (CSHARP) -- student-developed payloads successfully launched from Wallops Flight Facility in September of 1992, and August of 1994 respectively. This paper will discuss the HOMER mission and its scientific achievements. The HOMER project was an outstanding success. With collaboration among colleges and universities throughout Colorado, HOMER was a multidisciplinary effort that provided an unparalleled educational experience for over 100 students. Working within the confines of a short schedule and small budget, students conceived, managed, designed, built, tested, and launched a payload that gathered significant science data. HOMER serves as a proven model for subsequent student-developed payloads.