Recently, two satellites from Europe were launched on a mission that will involve a total solar eclipse simulation.
The satellites were launched on a rocket constructed in India by the European Space Agency (ESA) on December 5 from southern India.
The two satellites ride together in a stable position as part of ESA’s Proba-3 mission, which intends to demonstrate precision formation flying capabilities.
After reaching their target region far above Earth, the two satellites are scheduled to split off and travel 150 meters apart in roughly a month.
Simulating a solar eclipse
A series of man-made total solar eclipses will be performed by the two spacecraft as part of one of the mission’s main experiments. While obstructing the sun itself, a shadow cast by one satellite will allow the other to monitor sun activity.
Giving scientists the opportunity to investigate the sun’s outermost atmosphere, or corona, is the aim of this mission. Because of the sun’s brilliance, it is challenging to observe the corona.
This region of the sun has been the subject of numerous attempts by scientists to observe it from Earth during actual total solar eclipses. However, those eclipses are rare and often last about five minutes. The Proba-3 team intends to conduct up to six-hour total eclipses at least twice a week.
Repeated corona research, according to scientists, can help uncover new details about how solar activity affects Earth. For instance, the study may help scientists better understand how the sun’s energy output varies over time and why the corona is so much hotter than the sun itself.
Geomagnetic storms, which can occasionally be caused by strong solar activity, can interfere with Earth’s power and communication systems.
“For six hours at a time, it will be able to see the sun’s faint atmosphere, the corona, in the hard-to-observe region between the sun’s edge and 1.4 million kilometers from its surface,” according to an ESA press release.
According to mission leaders, the spacecraft must be positioned precisely within one millimeter for the eclipse experiments to be successful. The satellites will rely on radio communications, laser systems, and GPS to maintain their location.
In a statement, ESA stated that “Proba-3 is very different because during active formation flying, our satellites will be flying just one and a half football fields away from each other.”
On the Proba-3 mission, Esther Bastida Pertegaz works as a systems engineer. In a video, she stated, “Very little research has been done on the sun’s corona. We are particularly interested in learning how the solar wind or coronal mass ejections arise in this region.
According to the Reuters news agency, more than 40 European businesses are supporting the $210 million project. Airbus Defence and Space, Redwire Space, and SENER Aerospace are a few of these.
According to ESA, over its two-year operation, Proba-3 would strive for at least 1,000 hours of “on demand” totality. Both satellites will continue to descend until they burn up in the atmosphere after the mission is over. That would probably occur in five years, according to officials.
In order to enable future missions, ESA has said that additional Proba-3 orbits will be conducted in addition to the eclipse tests. These orbits will demonstrate a variety of precision formation flying.
