A public catalog for aerospace companies and small businesses. Search facilities, instruments, equipment, data, software, expertise, partnerships, and intellectual property held by Colorado organizations. Names and descriptions are copied from official pages.
541 assets from 19 organizations
150 of 541 assets
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
One of five LASP ambient pressure thermal chambers, used for small instrument and subsystem thermal tests, component bake-outs and curing of polymerics; Giant White is 32 x 30 x 36 in, covers 200C to -73C, and has humidity control, cable…
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
LASP's largest thermal vacuum chamber, used for thermal vacuum, thermal balance and optical testing of spacecraft and large instruments; 120.6 in inner diameter by 155.9 in depth, five thermal zones, 100C to -170C, capable of 10e-8 Torr,…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
4-axis CNC lathe with live tooling in the AERO 155 machine shop (primarily for metals); listed in the equipment list without further specs.
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
JEOL ARM-200F probe-corrected 200 kV analytical electron microscope resolving single atoms, with EELS/EDS chemical analysis and MAADF/HAADF STEM detectors; used for GaN polarity and nanowire interface studies in the Precision Imaging…
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
An airborne cavity enhanced spectrometer that uses two mirrors to create an optical path of several tens of kilometers within a 50 cm cell. It measures glyoxal, nitrous acid and nitrogen dioxide (30 pptv in 10 seconds for glyoxal and NO2)…
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Atmosphere Control Module (ACM), a SABL insert that holds the experiment volume at 5% CO2 for mammalian cell culture; freshly filled units fly on a rotating basis.
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Active Remote Sensing Lab (ARSENL) with a 400 sq. ft. optics lab with two full optical benches, a 600 sq. ft. RF electronics lab and graduate office space, for lidar and active remote sensing research.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Animal Enclosure Module - ECLSS (AEM-E), a middeck locker-sized insert for the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft that transports up to 40 mice or 12 rats to the ISS for rodent research.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
NASA-funded Smead/LASP CubeSat imaging energetic X-rays to study electrons precipitating from the Van Allen radiation belts and their effect on atmospheric ozone; launched Mar. 30, 2026 on SpaceX Transporter 16; in service since May 13,…
Aerospace Propulsion and Diagnostics Laboratory (CSU APDL)Physical Infrastructure
APDL Hypersonic Wind Tunnel (APDL-HWT), a modular high-speed flow facility for supersonic and hypersonic aerodynamics, propulsion and flow–plasma research with wide optical access; it runs in indraft and blowdown configurations and up to…
Aerospace Propulsion and Diagnostics Laboratory (CSU APDL)Physical Infrastructure
Atmospheric Re-Entry Simulation Facility (ARES), APDL's high-enthalpy platform built around a low-pressure plasma torch (Advanced Energy Remote Plasma Source) for studying shock layers, thermal protection system response, nonequilibrium…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Autonomous Atmospheric Surface Flux Stations developed at PSL by CIRES and NOAA engineers to measure surface energy budget terms over sea ice and other remote surfaces, with radio communication up to 10 km and a fuel cartridge that can…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
Atom chip designed by the Anderson group with NASA JPL and ColdQuanta for the NASA Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), built to enable ultracold atom experiments in the microgravity of the International Space Station, with very high trap…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Airborne Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System: parachuted GPS dropsondes launched from aircraft measure high-resolution profiles of temperature, pressure, humidity and wind to the surface, telemetered in real time to the aircraft; used in…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Bambu Lab X1C Carbon Combo 3D Printer (x5) in the PILOT (AERO 141) rapid-prototyping area; Print size 256 × 256 × 256 mm; 5 units; pay for printing; use by special request.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Bambu Labs H2S in the PILOT (AERO 141) rapid-prototyping area; Print size 340 × 320 × 340 mm; pay for printing; use by special request.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
BioCell, a family of BioServe cell culture hardware analogous to culture flasks or multi-well plates for laboratory-fidelity cell culture on ISS, supporting seedings, fluid injections, media exchanges, passaging, fixation and preservation…
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
BioServe Microscopy Platform (BSMP): hardware for astronauts to capture high-definition microscopy images and videos on the ISS for downlink, built around an inverted brightfield and phase-contrast microscope; objective lenses are already…
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
One of four LASP bake-out tanks (vacuum ovens) used to verify cleanliness of instruments, subsystems and ground support equipment with residual gas analyzers; BOT-II is 26.75 in diameter by 33.13 in deep, has a shroud, a 150C maximum…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
1,700 m² (18,000 ft²) ISO class 5 cleanroom operated by the Quantum Electromagnetics Division, providing micro- and nano-fabrication for the microelectronic and MEMS needs of NIST-Boulder staff and direct collaborators; about 60% of…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
NSF-funded Smead CubeSat mapping how VLF energy from lightning and ground transmitters reaches space; launched Apr. 7, 2026 on USSF STP-S29A from Vandenberg; in service; PI Robert Marshall.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Central UV Calibration Facility, operational since 1997 as a joint NOAA–NIST project, providing accurate, long-term repeatable calibrations and characterizations of UV monitoring instruments, including secondary irradiance standards,…
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
BioServe Centrifuge for ISS research in the life, physical and material sciences, based on the Eppendorf MiniSpin with 800 to 13,400 rpm at better than 3% accuracy, for cell separation, microfiltration and pelleting.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA), a dual-function incubator/freezer operating between -16 °C and 37 °C that has supported experiments on ISS, Mir, the Space Shuttle and Dragon; 27 L experiment volume in refrigerator mode.…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
CMP machine in the Boulder Microfabrication Facility that planarizes silicon dioxide layers, enabling more complex multilayer circuitry and polishing of optical films roughened during processing.
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Chromospheric Helium-I Imaging Photometer: a differential imager using the He I 1083 nm line (with nearby calibration wavelengths) via a tunable liquid-crystal Lyot filter and IR CCD, producing images every 3 minutes for CME, coronal-hole…
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
Cloud Imaging and Particle Size Experiment, a four-camera panoramic imager on AIM that measures ultraviolet radiation scattered by polar mesospheric clouds and atmospheric gases to determine cloud occurrence, brightness and particle size,…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
NASA-funded inner radiation belt CubeSat making fine-grain Van Allen belt measurements; launched Apr. 15, 2023 on Transporter 7 (SpaceX F9), mission success, deorbited Oct. 4, 2024; PI Xinlin Li.
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
CDP, an underwing optical probe (updated FSSP design) that sizes and counts individual cloud droplets from laser-light scattering, giving cloud particle size distributions across 2–50 µm at up to 25 Hz; flown on the GV.
Center for Laser Sensing and Diagnostics (CSU CLSD)Physical Infrastructure
CSU Center for Laser Sensing and Diagnostics laboratory of about 2000 sq. ft. at the Powerhouse Energy Campus, with solid-state lasers, spectroscopic detection equipment and test beds for plasma and combustion experiments.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Commercial HALO Photonics StreamLine XR scanning Doppler lidar used by CSL to map atmospheric velocity and backscatter for boundary-layer studies, with 1.5 µm eye-safe wavelength, 10 kHz pulse rate, 48 m range resolution and ~5 cm/s…
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
A compact time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer, originally built by Aerodyne Research in 2002 and customized by NOAA CSL. It measures non-refractory submicron aerosol composition (sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, chloride, organics) in…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Photomixing THz spectrometer combining a fixed cw Ti:sapphire ring laser and a tunable Ti:sapphire laser on a low-temperature-grown Er:GaAs photomixer to generate up to ~5 µW from 0.06 to 4 THz, with cryogenic samples at 4.2 K and a…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Compact spaceborne magnetic observatory CubeSat (Smead, LASP, CIRES) for efficient high-resolution magnetic-field data; launched Mar. 30, 2026 on SpaceX Transporter 16; funded via the NGA MagQuest Competition and a CU Boulder Grand…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
K-Cor: an internally occulted refractive coronagraph recording polarization brightness of the low corona (1.05–3 solar radii) at 15 s cadence to study CME formation and coronal density; deployed to the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory in…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment CubeSat studying links between solar flares and energetic particles; launched 9/13/2012 on NASA ELaNa VI, operated to 12/22/2014 (mission success); 20 peer-reviewed papers and 3 PhDs; PI Xinlin Li;…
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA)Physical Infrastructure
CIRA's Data Processing Centers for NASA's CloudSat and INCUS missions. The CloudSat DPC processes the 94 GHz radar's reflectivity into cloud microphysics, precipitation and cloud radiative products and has distributed more than 105 million…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
NSF NCAR computing for the research community: Derecho, an HPE Cray EX supercomputer (19.87 petaflops, 20% GPU capability) housed with the GLADE storage system at the NSF NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, plus data analysis and…
Aerospace Propulsion and Diagnostics Laboratory (CSU APDL)Physical Infrastructure
APDL's direct-connect solid-fuel ramjet (SFRJ) testing platform, developed in an industry-sponsored project on laser ignition, fuel formulation and aerodynamic flame stabilization in high-speed flow; it demonstrated stable ignition and…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Zeiss Auriga dual-beam instrument combining Ga focused-ion-beam milling/deposition (~10 nm patterning) with field-emission SEM imaging and EDS; used for atom-probe and TEM sample preparation, nanofabrication of probe tips and…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
Edwards 306 e-beam evaporator in the JILA Keck Lab for thin film coatings of gold, silver, platinum, titanium, chromium, copper, cobalt, nickel, aluminum and other metals, accepting up to 4 coating materials per run; training on request or…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
JILA Electronics Shop, whose electrical engineers design, build and troubleshoot custom analog and digital devices, specializing in FPGA and reprogrammable circuitry and low-noise circuits, with a component storeroom and a loan pool of…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
AES electronics shop with data acquisition and sensors, ICs, advanced soldering, pick-and-place, a reflow oven, specialized power supplies and oscilloscopes; workshops via Aeroportal.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer, a far ultraviolet spectrometer jointly developed by LASP and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) to determine the abundance and variability of carbon monoxide and oxygen in the Martian…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Epilog Fusion M2 - Laser Cutter in the PILOT (AERO 141) rapid-prototyping area; Bed size 812 × 508 mm; bring your own material; use by special request.
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
A vacufuge concentrator (Make/Model 5305) with plate and microcentrifuge tube rotors, in the CIRES Fierer lab. Open to the home department and all university users, and to academic and national lab users case by case.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment on SDO, which measures the solar EUV irradiance spectrum (0.1 nm resolution, 20 s cadence, 25% accuracy requirement) with grating spectrographs and array detectors plus on-board calibration…
Center for Laser Sensing and Diagnostics (CSU CLSD)Physical Infrastructure
Fixed-wing and rotor drones used by CLSD as platforms for atmospheric sensing.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Formlabs - Resin/UV 3D printer (x1) in the PILOT (AERO 141) rapid-prototyping area; Print size 145 × 145 × 185 mm; 1 unit; pay for printing; use by special request.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Fluid Processing Apparatus (FPA), an enclosed test tube for controlled, sequential mixing of two to four fluids (6.5 mL total) in microgravity within NASA containment standards, grouped in GAP units; flown since STS-50 in 1992.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Freezer / Refrigerator / Incubator Device for Galley and Experimentation (FRIDGE), a middeck locker-sized unit using thermoelectric elements from -20.0 °C to +48.0 °C for crew galley items and research onboard the ISS.
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
FSM-100P fusion fiber splicer in the JILA Keck Lab, with a how-to video for users.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, which images Earth’s disk every half hour to map temperature and composition in the sunlit thermosphere and electron density in the nighttime ionosphere,…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Maskless optical lithography tool in the Boulder Microfabrication Facility that writes patterns directly onto substrates (1 cm chips to 150 mm wafers) with a 375 nm or 405 nm laser at 0.9 µm resolution, shortening prototyping by…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Airborne, polarimetric, millimeter-wavelength (94.4 GHz) cloud radar in an underwing pod of the NSF/NCAR HIAPER GV, with a rotatable reflector for 240° cross-track scanning or zenith/nadir staring; provides reflectivity, velocity and…
United States Air Force Academy High Performance Computing Research Center (USAFA HPCRC)Physical Infrastructure
HPCRC computing resources for USAFA faculty, staff and cadets: access to DoD supercomputing, local computer and storage systems, high-speed networking and DREN access for all DF research centers.
United States Air Force Academy Aeronautics Research Center (USAFA ARC)Physical Infrastructure
Hypersonic Mach 6 Ludwieg Tube at USAFA: a 0.5 m diameter, 35 m tunnel testing at up to six times the speed of sound to show how hypersonic shapes heat up, used by cadets for hypersonic testing.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
Interstellar Dust Experiment on IMAP, a time-of-flight dust impact ionization mass spectrometer that measures the elemental composition, speed and mass distributions of interstellar and interplanetary dust particles.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
IMPACT laboratory housing a 3 MV linear electrostatic dust accelerator (Pelletron) that launches micron and submicron particles to velocities approaching 100 km/s for impact research and calibration of space dust instruments; the lab…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
JILA Instrument Shop, whose instrument makers design and fabricate precise scientific instruments such as custom mounts, chambers and precision mechanical devices using CNC vertical machining centers and mills and tool-room lathes;…
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
The CIRES/Chemistry Integrated Instrument Development Facility combines design, precision machine, electronics and scientific glassblowing shops for complete scientific instrument development, from concept to testing. It serves customers…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Deployable lower-atmosphere observing system combining radiosondes, radar wind profilers (449/915/1290 MHz) with RASS, a scanning Doppler wind lidar, ceilometers, an infrared spectrometer and surface meteorology; deployable in standard,…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Deployable surface observing system for atmosphere–surface exchange studies, combining a network of surface weather stations with intensive single-site micrometeorological tower arrays; measures fluxes by eddy correlation, radiation, soil…
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
A computer-controlled whole air sampling system (bellows compressor plus rack-mounted modules of twelve 1.4 L electropolished stainless steel canisters) that collects samples for offline GC-MS analysis aboard research aircraft and mobile…
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
A modified TOFWERK/Aerodyne time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer that uses iodide adduct formation to detect reactive nitrogen (HONO, N2O5, HNCO), halogen, sulphur (HPMTF) and organic species such as formic acid, with…
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
The Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph on the MAVEN spacecraft measures global characteristics of the Mars upper atmosphere and ionosphere by remote sensing, including major molecules, atoms, ions and isotopes, exobase and ionosphere…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Smaller LifeLAB thermal vacuum chamber, donated by Sierra Nevada Corporation, for small-scale testing of spaceflight components; cools to about −190 °C, reaches 2×10⁻⁶ torr, 3–4 h experiment cycle; used to study lunar dust effects on…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Electron-beam lithography tool in the Boulder Microfabrication Facility allowing wafer-level lithography of features as small as 8 nm, with 1000x better position registration and write speed than the previous tool; supports quantum…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
JILA Computing Services, operating JILA servers and two small computational clusters for quantum chemistry and molecular modeling software, supporting use of the CU supercomputer with CU Research Computing, and running a computer lab with…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
JILA Keck Lab, made up of the W.M. Keck Optical Measurements Laboratory and the JILA Micro and Nanofabrication Facility, with a cleanroom, a metrology room and a fume hood/wafer dicing room; instruments are reserved online, and users can…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
JILA Micro and Nanofabrication Facility: a suite of Class 1000 (ISO 6) and Class 100 (ISO 5) cleanrooms for micro and nano fabrication, with optical microscopes, PVD, spin and sputter coating systems, scanning electron microscopes and a…
Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (NTIA ITS)Physical Infrastructure
Large Turntable at Table Mountain: a 10.4 m (34 ft) rotatable steel table mounted flush with the ground, with laboratory space underneath for test instrumentation and the control equipment and motors.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Laser-induced fluorescence instrument for sulfur dioxide developed at NOAA CSL since 2015 using fiber laser technology, measuring SO2 at parts-per-trillion levels (detection limit 5 pptv in 1 s) with 5 Hz airborne time response; built for…
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
ISO Class 7 cleanroom space for assembly, integration and test (AI&T) of spaceflight hardware for external customers, with humidity and temperature control, ESD floors, ISO Class 5 flow benches, overhead cranes, and clean nitrogen purge;…
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
NASA Libera radiometer instrument, four co-aligned electrical substitution radiometers with carbon-nanotube absorbers on elevation and azimuth scan mechanisms, to monitor Earth’s radiative energy budget and continue the CERES data record;…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Cameca LEAP 4000x Si atom probe that field-evaporates tip specimens with voltage and laser pulses into a position-sensitive time-of-flight mass spectrometer, giving 3D composition with near-ppm sensitivity and sub-nm position accuracy;…
United States Air Force Academy Aeronautics Research Center (USAFA ARC)Physical Infrastructure
USAFA low-speed (M < 0.1) and subsonic (up to Mach 0.6) wind tunnels with modern force and moment measurement, used to investigate air-vehicle modifications and new aircraft and UAS designs.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
AES machine shops: AERO 155 for metals (CNC knee and vertical mills, 4-axis CNC lathe, welding, brazing, hazardous testing room AERO 169) and AERO 152 for wood and composites (lay-up area, composites oven, paint and sanding booths, powder…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
MarkForged- Composite 3D printer (x1) in the PILOT (AERO 141) rapid-prototyping area; Print size 320 × 132 × 152 mm; 1 unit; pay for printing; use by special request.
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
Picomaster maskless laser writer in the JILA Keck Lab for direct-write photolithography, currently fitted with a 375 nm optical module and supporting backside alignment from GDS files; usage is charged on a tiered rate schedule.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Atmospheric research observatory on the north flank of Mauna Loa Volcano on Hawaii's Big Island, at 3,397 m, that has continuously monitored atmospheric change since the 1950s. It sits above the marine temperature inversion, so it samples…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Smead/LASP CubeSat to demonstrate high-rate X-band communications in deep space; launch mid-2026; PI Scott Palo; US Air Force funded, winner of the Air Force University Nanosatellite Program UNP-9 competition; partners include Blue Canyon…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Micro-pulse Doppler (MicroDop) lidar for conical or vertical scanning of wind and aerosol backscatter profiles, packaged for aircraft, ship or ground use and installed in a pickup truck on a motion stabilization platform in 2020; 1.553 µm…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
MTP, a wing-mounted scanning microwave radiometer that measures oxygen thermal emission at 56–59 GHz at 10 viewing angles to retrieve temperature profiles above, below and at flight level, with in-flight reference-target calibration;…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Miniature X-ray solar spectrometer CubeSat measuring the soft X-ray spectrum from 0.4 to 30 keV with <0.15 keV FWHM resolution; launched 12/6/2015 (ULA/Orbital-ATK OA-4), operated 2016–2017, deorbited 5/6/2017; PI Tom Woods; NSF and NASA…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
HAO's white-light K-coronameters at MLSO: Mark-III (1980–1999, linear-array scanning) and Mark-IV (from 1998, built with Rhodes College) with a liquid-crystal polarization modulator and CCD line array, producing polarization-brightness…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Fully automated dual-chamber MBE system in NIST's Applied Physics Division for growing GaAs-, InP- and GaN-based compound semiconductor heterostructures with sub-nanometer thickness control, used for quantum dots, nanowires, lasers,…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
APAR: an airborne C-band dual-polarization phased-array radar in development at NCAR, with four removable AESAs on the NSF/NCAR C-130 providing dual-Doppler, rapid-scan and digital-beamforming observations of storm kinematics and…
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
A diode laser cavity ring-down spectrometer measuring NO, NO2, O3 and NOy at 1 second with a 30 pptv detection limit, used in field projects from ACCRONIM 2009 to SUNVEx 2021.
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
NSF NCAR Lockheed EC-130Q Hercules research aircraft, in NSF service since 1992, carrying ~13,000 lb of payload with 8–9 h endurance below ~27,000 ft; suited to lower and middle troposphere and boundary-layer studies, with an in-flight…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
NSF NCAR High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER), a Gulfstream GV research aircraft carrying up to 5,600 lb of sensors from the surface to the stratosphere for university-driven field campaigns;…
Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (NTIA ITS)Physical Infrastructure
Open Field Radio Test Site at Table Mountain for measuring far-field antenna radiation patterns and the effect of mounting antennas on structures such as buildings or vehicles, inside the Radio Quiet Zone.
United States Air Force Academy Aeronautics Research Center (USAFA ARC)Physical Infrastructure
Operating engines at USAFA, including an F-109 turbofan and several internal combustion engines, used for fuels and flow-quality investigations with an emphasis on ejectors and ducted fans.
Aerospace Propulsion and Diagnostics Laboratory (CSU APDL)Physical Infrastructure
Plasma-Assisted Combustion (PAC) Facility built around a Honeywell SER500 burner with a FiD nanosecond-pulsed plasma system, for studying plasma-enhanced ignition, lean flame stabilization and combustion efficiency with optical access.
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Panopticon: four 0.2 m f/3 Officina Stellare RH200 astrographs, each with a 10-slot filter wheel, co-aligned for simultaneous measurements with different sensors or pointed off-boresight for a 7 x 7 degree field of view with Kepler KL4040…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry (PALMS), a CSL airborne single-particle instrument for aerosol composition, with an interactive data display intended to support collaboration on its data set.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
BioServe Payload Operation and Control Center (POCC), an on-site, dedicated 24/7 remote operations center through which BioServe personnel operate all BioServe ISS payloads.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Plant Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (PGBA), a BioServe plant growth chamber for plant physiology in microgravity that flew on three Space Shuttle missions (STS-77, STS-83 and STS-94) from 1996 and operated on the ISS briefly in 2002.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Plate Habitat (PHAB) providing secondary biological containment for BioCells and similar third-party hardware such as OmniTrays, configurable with vents, seals and pressure relief for gas exchange, e.g. in a 5% CO2 environment.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Practical Innovation Through Learning, Observation and Teaching lab: student workstations with power supplies, multimeters and oscilloscopes and coursework software (MATLAB, SolidWorks, Altium, STK, ANSYS), rapid-prototyping printers and a…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
CubeSat demonstrating atmospheric sounding and polar sea-ice/ice-free-ocean detection and mapping, built on the ALL-STAR CubeSat bus with Colorado Space Grant, CET and NSIDC; launched January 18, 2021 on LauncherOne from Mojave Air and…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Portable Optical Particle Spectrometer developed at NOAA CSL: a small, lightweight, low-power research-grade instrument that sizes and counts aerosol particles from 405 nm light scattering, flown on balloons, aircraft, UAS and the ISS.
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
PSPT, centerpiece of NSF's RISE program on solar radiative-output variability: a 15 cm refractor producing full-disk 2048x2048 images in blue and red continuum and Ca II K bands at 0.1% pixel-to-pixel photometric precision; NSO-built units…
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Cooperative NIST Boulder microscopy and microanalysis facility (3,000 sq ft, ARRA-funded) housing an aberration-corrected TEM, a dual-beam FIB/SEM and a local electrode atom probe for imaging and compositional analysis down to the atomic…
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
A modified Aerodyne high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer that measures volatile organic compounds (aromatics, biogenic VOCs, alcohols, ketones, acids, aldehydes, nitriles, dimethyl sulfide) by proton-transfer chemical…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
miniFlux, a small, light sensor suite for uncrewed aircraft developed by NOAA PSL and the University of Colorado Boulder that measures 3D wind, air temperature, surface and sky temperature and humidity.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
US-01 CubeSat in the Von Karman Institute's multi-nation QB50 initiative, making multi-point measurements of the mid-lower thermosphere; launched 4/18/2017 on Orbital ATK CRS-7, mission success, deorbited 8/12/2018; PI Scott Palo; NSF…
Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (NTIA ITS)Physical Infrastructure
Radar Test Range at Table Mountain providing power and internet for hosting radar systems for radiated emissions measurements.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Larger LifeLAB chamber (about an order of magnitude bigger than JANA) for testing larger components such as a full-scale EVA-suit radiator; pumps down to vacuum but currently lacks thermal control.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Smead CubeSat to demonstrate path-diagnostic radio and laser communications that would let satellite communications be automated; AFRL University Nanosatellite Program funding (2021); launch TBA; PI Scott Palo.
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)Physical Infrastructure
A Retsch MM 400 shaker adapted for 96-well plates, used for bead beating during DNA extraction, in the CIRES Fierer lab. Open to the home department and all university users, and to academic and national lab users case by case.
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
RIE in the JILA Keck Lab, recommended with oxygen for removing organics from sample and wafer surfaces; the pump is started manually from the pump controller.
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
CTL antenna metrology laboratory built on multi-robot measurement systems (LAPS with two 6-axis arms on an 8 m rail for 0.1–50 GHz; the 13-axis CROMMA for ~50–500 GHz) for antenna pattern, gain and polarization metrology, 5G/6G and…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
S-band Dual Polarization Doppler Radar: a research-grade, transportable ground-based weather radar (2.7–2.9 GHz, 8.5 m antenna) for precipitation, microphysics and storm-structure studies at remote sites; ships in eight 20 ft containers…
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
The Space Automated Bioproduct Lab (SABL) is a dual-function incubator/freezer on the ISS that keeps biological samples and other experiment materials between -5°C and +43°C. It offers over 23 liters of temperature-controlled, LED-lit…
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Space Automated Lab Incubator (SALI), a single middeck locker-sized unit using thermoelectric elements to heat and cool its chamber from -20.0 °C to +48.0 °C for research onboard the ISS; EXPRESS-rack compatible.
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)Physical Infrastructure
Satellite Technology Integration Lab (STIg): a 500 sq. ft. lab with ESD mats and ionizers for spacecraft subsystem testing and integration, with an ultrasonic cleaner, Helmholtz cage, Agilent 480 W solar array simulator, spectrum analyzer,…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
SEM in the JILA Keck Lab, with a video training refresher for users; it is not currently supported by Thermofisher and has reached End-of-Life, and options for maintaining it are being evaluated.
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)Physical Infrastructure
SITH (Space Imaging and Tracking Hardware), a 0.6 m f/6.5 PlaneWave CDK24 Corrected Dall-Kirkham telescope on a PlaneWave L-600 mount, used to detect, track and characterize dimmer space objects.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
PSL snow-level radar operating at 2.835 GHz to measure the altitude where snow changes to rain, a key parameter for runoff in mountainous watersheds; built by CIRES.
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
HAO's white-light coronagraph/polarimeter on NASA's Solar Maximum Mission (launched 1980) for studying the corona's relationship to solar flares; repaired in orbit by Shuttle mission STS-41C in 1984, it produced ~240,000 coronal images…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
GML Solar Radiation Calibration Facility (SRCF) calibrating and characterizing pyranometers and pyrheliometers for the GML baseline observatories and BSRN sites (Kwajalein, Bermuda, BAO), with reference cavity radiometers and solar…
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Syringe Pump for Organs-on-Chips (SPOC), designed for the NIH Chips in Space initiative, holding six Nortis Triplex MPS chips per unit with local heating to 37.0 °C; SABL takes up to two SPOC units plus an ACM.
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
Two sputter chambers in the JILA Keck Lab for coating metals and dielectrics, with a published sputtering target list; staff can help source targets or do e-beam or thermal evaporative coatings instead.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
Europa SUrface Dust Analyzer, a LASP-built instrument on NASA's Europa Clipper that measures the composition of dust around Europa to map organic and inorganic, major and trace compounds and link them to their surface origin.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Boulder station of the SURFRAD surface radiation network, with instruments on the deck of the Table Mountain Test Facility about 8 miles north of Boulder that are also used for annual intercomparisons.
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
Three-CubeSat NSF Ideas Lab constellation led by CU Boulder with five other universities to study how charged and neutral particles interact in the thermosphere; launch Dec. 2026 on ELaNa 59; PI Scott Palo.
Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (NTIA ITS)Physical Infrastructure
Table Mountain Field Site and Radio Quiet Zone, about 680 hectares (1,700 acres) of flat mesa 15 km north of the Department of Commerce campus in Boulder, one of only two federally mandated radio quiet zones in the U.S., used since 1954…
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
Electronics Shop loan pool of high-quality test equipment, including oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, function generators and other common electrical test and measurement equipment.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
The Boulder Atmospheric Observatory, a former NOAA PSL research facility in Erie, Colorado for studying the planetary boundary layer and testing and calibrating atmospheric sensors, centred on a 300-m instrumented tower; it officially came…
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (CU Smead AES)Physical Infrastructure
LifeLAB's two thermal vacuum chambers for testing spacecraft components in a simulated space environment: JANA (small, pump-down and thermal control) and RALPHEE (about ten times larger, vacuum only).
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder Laboratories (NIST Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Dual electro-optic frequency comb THz system: phase-coherent chirped pulses drive electro-optic modulators to generate flat THz combs in a photoconductive switch, down-converted to RF below 1 MHz for sensitive, fast (bio)molecular sensing;…
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
Total Irradiance Monitor, which measures total solar irradiance (the spatially and spectrally integrated solar radiation at the top of Earth’s atmosphere) with an ambient-temperature active cavity radiometer, continuing the solar climate…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
GML total ozone program using the Dobson Ozone Spectrophotometer, in use since the 1920s, to measure total column ozone from the surface to the edge of the atmosphere, including observations at Mauna Loa and Boulder.
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Tissue Preservation Kit (TPK), a family of hardware for returning preserved rodent tissue samples from NASA's Rodent Research missions.
United States Air Force Academy Aeronautics Research Center (USAFA ARC)Physical Infrastructure
USAFA 1-by-1-foot Trisonic Wind Tunnel testing aircraft and missile shapes at transonic and supersonic speeds up to Mach 4.5.
Center for Laser Sensing and Diagnostics (CSU CLSD)Physical Infrastructure
Truck-mounted methane sensor used by CLSD for oil and gas emission measurements (pictured Feb. 2023).
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
UHSAS optical aerosol spectrometer (DMT) measuring size-resolved aerosol concentration in 99 bins over ~55–1000 nm by light scattering; the rack (UHSAS-G) version is modified by RAF for in-flight pressure variation, and the wing (UHSAS-A)…
Aerospace Propulsion and Diagnostics Laboratory (CSU APDL)Physical Infrastructure
ULTRA (Ultrafast Laser Technologies for Research and Analysis), a femtosecond laser system with nonlinear wavelength conversion covering deep ultraviolet to near-infrared, for laser diagnostics and spectroscopy of reacting flows, plasmas…
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)Physical Infrastructure
UCoMP: a 20-cm Lyot coronagraph with a Stokes polarimeter and electro-optically tuned birefringent filter imaging intensity, polarization, Doppler shift and line width across visible and near-IR coronal emission lines (530–1083 nm); an…
United States Air Force Academy Aeronautics Research Center (USAFA ARC)Physical Infrastructure
USAFA Aeronautics Laboratory used by the Aeronautics Research Center, described as the best-equipped aeronautics facility in academia.
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR)Physical Infrastructure
VADeR Lab Space Domain Awareness Observatory with two telescopes, Panopticon (4 co-aligned 0.2 m f/3 telescopes for simultaneous multi-phenomenology observations) and SITH (0.6 m f/6.5), providing data for space situational awareness…
BioServe Space Technologies (BioServe)Physical Infrastructure
Variable Gravity Machine (VGM), a SABL insert for variable-gravity experiments up to 7.1G in microgravity aboard the ISS, covering Moon, Mars and 1G levels for on-orbit comparisons.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Highly sensitive 95 GHz W-band radar designed and built by NOAA and CIRES researchers at PSL to detect small cloud water droplets that longer-wavelength weather radars miss; deployable on aircraft and ships.
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
W. M. Keck Optical Measurement Laboratory (JILA Metrology lab) maintaining shared optical measurement and characterization instruments, including an atomic force microscope, beam profilers, optical microscopes, polarimeters, spectrum…
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
NOAA Wide Swath Radar Altimeter, carried on a NOAA P-3D Orion Hurricane Hunter aircraft to map ocean wave height, speed and direction and rain rate beneath hurricanes, with data sent in real time to National Hurricane Center forecasters.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
Doppler wind profiler radars that transmit vertical pulses scattered by clouds, precipitation and turbulence to measure wind speed and direction at various heights; PSL fields profilers in the 915 MHz and 449 MHz bands.
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA)Physical Infrastructure
Wire bonders in the JILA Keck Lab cleanroom and metrology room, with a maximum wire size of 0.002" diameter.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Boulder)Physical Infrastructure
NOAA GML serves as the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch Central Calibration Laboratory for CO2, CH4, N2O, SF6 and CO, maintaining the calibration scales and offering calibration services for these gases for a fee.
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)Physical Infrastructure
X-ray Ultraviolet Photometer System, one of four solar irradiance experiments on SORCE, continuing solar XUV irradiance measurements from earlier versions flown on SNOE and TIMED with improved accuracy.