To study the physical mechanisms of phenomena such as polar mesospheric summer echoes, the SCRAP (Scattering of Radar waves on Aerosols in Plasmas) experiment aimed to validate theories on density fluctuations in dusty plasmas. The SCRAP team developed two identical free falling units (FFUs) designed to create a cloud of copper particles once they eject from the REXUS17 sounding rocket 124 seconds after launch. By using the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar system to observe the cloud, the SCRAP experiment proposed to relate theoretical predictions to a controlled object. The SCRAP experiment was launched from ESRANGE on March the 17th 2015. The FFUs GPS signal was lost during launch and the units were therefore not found. Moreover, no backscattering from the copper cloud was observed by the radar.
QC 20160608