The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the Proba-3 mission, an international effort to test precision flight in space. To do this, you will first have to create solar eclipses. The two satellites that make up the experiment took off on the PSLV-XL rocket, a 44-meter device on which almost all launches of the Indian space organization (ISRO) are based.
The two Proba-3 satellites will produce mini solar eclipses in space. Once in orbit around the Earth, they will create a parallel formation with millimeter precision. The body of one of them will cover the face of the Sun to cast a large shadow (similar to the role of the Moon in a solar eclipse). The other, positioned dozens of meters away, will collect all the information about the event, including data from the solar corona that is visualized in natural astronomical phenomena.
Understanding the nature of this surface layer of the Sun is essential. This corona is the source of solar phenomena that affect Earth’s telecommunications, such as coronal mass ejections. Due to the abrupt decrease in light, solar eclipses are the perfect opportunity to study the solar corona. However, scientists are limited to the periodicity of the phenomenon. For example, the last good viewing window was the North American eclipse in April 2024.
“Proba-3 can fill the observation gap from three solar radii to 1.1 solar radii. This will allow the evolution of the colossal solar explosions to be followed as they rise from the solar surface and accelerate outwards from the solar wind,” explains ESA in a statement.
Opened in Cologne, Germany, with an area of 700 square meters, LUNA will serve space agencies, startups and SMEs from around the world.
Studying the solar corona is important for astronomy, but the main goal of Proba-3 is to demonstrate to other space agencies that ESA has the potential to lead precise missions on the move. The ability to perform docking tasks in space is vital to the establishment of a space economy between Earth, Moon and Mars in the future.
The Proba-3 satellites were placed in a highly elliptical orbit that extends 60,000 kilometers from the Earth’s surface and will distance themselves by up to 150 meters. Every six hours, the two satellites will have to match their speeds and distances to generate a mini solar eclipse. If any of them deviate by millimeters, the sensors will pick up stray light and the study will be ruined.
“Fourteen ESA member states, including Canada, joined in this mission with the aim of demonstrating revolutionary European technology in the areas of autonomous operations and precision maneuvers, providing scientific results never seen before,” ESA said in a statement. .
For the space agency, there is only one way to demonstrate its technological capacity: generate scientific data that no other institution possesses. The Proba-3 twins have the responsibility of elevating the European consortium.
“Today it is not practical to fly a single 150 meter long spacecraft into orbit, but if Proba-3 can achieve equivalent performance using two small spacecraft, the mission will open up new ways of working in space for the future. Imagine multiple small platforms working together as one to form telescopes or virtual arrays with distant vision,” the space agency concluded.
#ESA #demonstrate #technological #potential #Proba3 #tool #capable #creating #solar #eclipses
