It is indeed exciting times for Maja Elise Rostad, team leader of the Space Instrumentation group at BCSS. In a few months, the Atmosphere Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) payload will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to be mounted on an external platform of the Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS). The ASIM payload includes an X-ray and gamma-ray sensor named MXGS that is partly built at the University of Bergen under the leadership of Maja. This instrument will be used to study terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, a phenomenon that often occurs during thunderstorms.
You can read more about the coming ASIM launch as well as Maja’s career in science in the article entitled “Maja har vendt blikket mot verdensrommet” in the newspaper Innherred (in Norwegian only).