Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/26/2012 08:04 pm
Wouldn't normally re-write a presser, but it was a good excuse to note the importance of the date and the UK side of things! :)
Post by: Jim on 04/26/2012 11:47 pm
Post by: Chris Bergin on 04/27/2012 12:03 pm
Hosted ESA and Astrium at KSC for some Solar Orbiter meetings this week.
Nice! Those Astrium guys will have enjoyed the area a lot more than Stevenage (not a very nice town :D).
Post by: Jim on 04/27/2012 12:19 pm
Hosted ESA and Astrium at KSC for some Solar Orbiter meetings this week.
Nice! Those Astrium guys will have enjoyed the area a lot more than Stevenage (not a very nice town :D).
I might eventually have to go there for some meetings
Post by: woods170 on 04/27/2012 01:46 pm
- Launch vehicle for Solar Orbiter is a NASA-supplied EELV (either Atlas 5 or Delta IV). Back-up launcher is Ariane 5.
- NASA planned two full instruments and two parts of instruments to fly on Solar Orbiter.
- However, due to budgetary constraints, the instrument contribution by NASA has been reduced to one full instrument (SoloHI) and one sensor. This happened march last year.
- The cut SICE and SIS contributions from NASA will be replaced by European instruments.
Post by: woods170 on 04/27/2012 02:02 pm
Hosted ESA and Astrium at KSC for some Solar Orbiter meetings this week.
Launcher related or instrument related?
Post by: bolun on 04/27/2012 02:15 pm
26 April 2012
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMXQLNW91H_index_0.html
Post by: Jim on 04/27/2012 04:33 pm
Hosted ESA and Astrium at KSC for some Solar Orbiter meetings this week.
Launcher related or instrument related?
Launcher
Post by: woods170 on 04/27/2012 09:35 pm
Hosted ESA and Astrium at KSC for some Solar Orbiter meetings this week.
Launcher related or instrument related?
Launcher
Thank you.
Post by: Hauerg on 04/29/2012 07:36 pm
Post by: simpl simon on 04/29/2012 07:45 pm
NASA will provide the launcher. Where have I heard that before???.
Yeah, ESA science programs include the cost of launch in the program budget, so they are always looking for the cheapest ride. In this case the launch is free for ESA and NASA gets a proportional share in the science equivalent to the cost of the launch.
Works the other way round, too: ESA is providing the launch for JWST, in addition to at least one instrument (from the UK!) as their contribution to the mission, in return for a share in the science.
All achieved with "no exchange of funds".
Post by: Alpha_Centauri on 04/29/2012 07:51 pm
NASA promised to provide the launcher for Exomars too...
Post by: peter-b on 04/29/2012 07:52 pm
Post by: Jim on 04/29/2012 08:00 pm
I think you missed his point.
NASA promised to provide the launcher for Exomars too...
And NASA also launched SOHO. So what is the point?
Post by: simpl simon on 04/30/2012 01:17 am
I think you missed his point.
NASA promised to provide the launcher for Exomars too...
Yes, I did miss his "point", because I've moved on, as ESA has, as we all should.
There are other examples of failed agreements between ESA and NASA but there's no point in making a point of them.
Post by: bolun on 06/20/2012 02:50 pm
20 Jun 2012
The UK Space Agency has announced a planned £11.5M investment for the scientific payloads for Solar Orbiter - the first medium (M-class) mission in the European Space Agency's (ESA) Cosmic Vision programme. The funding is being shared between British institutions for the development of four of the mission’s instruments to study the Sun.
http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency/news-and-events/2012/Jun/uk-space-agency-makes-stellar-investment-in-mission-to-the-sun
Post by: bolun on 10/22/2013 11:41 am
Wed, 16/10/2013
https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/press-release/thales-alenia-space-wins-contract-italian-space-agency-build-metis
Quote
Thales Alenia Space Italy has been awarded a contract by the Italian Space Agency to build the Metis (Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy) instrument, in conjunction with the company CGS S.p.A. (Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio). The Metis instrument will be used on the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter scientific satellite.
Quote
The company is already contributing one of the key spacecraft components, namely the heat shield that will protect the satellite and its instruments from temperatures up to 700°C when the Solar Orbiter spacecraft reaches the minimum distance from the Sun.
Post by: Galactic Penguin SST on 03/18/2014 09:23 pm
Post by: Lar on 03/18/2014 09:39 pm
Not surprisingly.... the Atlas V has been selected to launch this mission (http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/pages/News.shtml#/169/). Launch is scheduled in July 2017 on an Atlas V 411.Actually I for one found it fairly surprising!!! Any info from ESA on why they made the selection of an Atlas rather than using a european sourced launch vehicle? The ULA presser doesn't really say.
Post by: Proponent on 03/18/2014 10:06 pm
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/18/2014 10:11 pm
Will merge and sort it all out.
Post by: Chris Bergin on 03/18/2014 10:23 pm
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/03/atlas-v-launch-next-generation-sun-explorer-2017/
The Pre Launch Thread:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=34281.0 - merged with another thread.
Post by: bolun on 05/07/2014 10:12 am
Solar Orbiter sunshield (Image credit: ESA-Anneke Le Floc'h)
Post by: bolun on 12/16/2018 01:45 pm
14 December 2018 17:50
It's testing time for ESA's Solar Orbiter: after leaving the premises of prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, UK in September, the spacecraft has started its test campaign at the IABG facility in Ottobrunn, Germany.
With its assembly completed, the Solar Orbiter Proto Flight Model (PFM) was despatched to Germany on 26 September. Since arrival there, it has been blanketed with layers of insulation in preparation for its first major environmental check-outs: the thermal-vacuum cycling and balance tests. These will ensure that the spacecraft can carry out its ambitious mission to study the Sun close up.
The PFM is essentially the same as what is referred to as a Flight Model (FM) in the case of other missions, but it is subjected to more severe testing environments in order to complete its qualification campaign.
http://sci.esa.int/solar-orbiter/60988-solar-orbiter-receives-its-sunblock/
Image credit: Airbus Defence and Space
Post by: Tywin on 04/07/2019 03:16 am
http://sci.esa.int/solar-orbiter/61259-3-good-vibes-for-solar-orbiter/
Post by: Bean Kenobi on 04/07/2019 02:11 pm
Solar Orbiter almost ready for her journey to Kourou...at the moment all good with the vibration test...
It will be launched by an Atlas V from CCAFS, not Kourou.
Post by: Star One on 04/07/2019 02:16 pm
Solar Orbiter almost ready for her journey to Kourou...at the moment all good with the vibration test...
It will be launched by an Atlas V from CCAFS, not Kourou.
It’s even in the article linked to above.
Post by: zubenelgenubi on 07/07/2019 12:46 pm
23:27 Feb. 5 EST + 5:00 = 0427 Feb. 6 UTC
Post by: starbase on 10/14/2019 03:41 pm
https://sci.esa.int/web/solar-orbiter/-/51168-summary
Quote
Since the beginning of the 1990s, six unprecedented spacecraft built in Europe for the Ulysses, SOHO and Cluster missions have been investigating the Sun and its impact on our planet. With Solar Orbiter, we will take a close approach to find out ever more about our nearest star.
Solar Orbiter is a mission dedicated to solar and heliospheric physics. It was selected as the first medium-class mission of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Programme. The programme outlines key scientific questions which need to be answered about the development of planets and the emergence of life, how the Solar System works, the origins of the Universe, and the fundamental physics at work in the Universe.
Solar Orbiter will be used to examine how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere, the vast bubble of charged particles blown by the solar wind into the interstellar medium. The spacecraft will combine in situ and remote sensing observations to gain new information about the solar wind, the heliospheric magnetic field, solar energetic particles, transient interplanetary disturbances and the Sun's magnetic field.
Scheduled for launch in February 2020, the mission will provide close-up, high-latitude observations of the Sun. Solar Orbiter will have a highly elliptic orbit – between 1.2AU at aphelion and 0.28AU at perihelion. It will reach its operational orbit just under two years after launch by using gravity assist manoeuvres (GAMs) at Earth and Venus. Subsequent GAMs at Venus will increase its inclination to the solar equator over time, reaching up to 24° at the end of the nominal mission (approximately 7 years after launch) and up to 33° in the extended mission phase.
Being close to the Sun allows for observations of solar surface features and their connection to the heliosphere for much longer periods than from near-Earth vantage points. The view of the solar poles will help us to understand how dynamo processes generate the Sun's magnetic field.
The science payload of Solar Orbiter comprises both remote-sensing and in situ instruments. The in situ instruments will operate continuously. During each orbit, the complete instrument suite will be operated around closest approach, and at the minimum and maximum heliographic latitudes – the segments of the orbit where Solar Orbiter will be farthest below and above the solar equator. Since the orbital characteristics will change in the course of the mission, individual orbits will be dedicated to specific science questions.
Solar Orbiter is an ESA-led mission with strong NASA participation. There will be ten instruments on board, eight of which will be provided by Principal Investigators through national funding by ESA Member States. A European-led consortium supported by national funding and ESA contributions will provide one complete instrument, whilst the remaining instrument and an additional sensor will be provided by NASA. The launch from Cape Canaveral will be aboard a NASA-provided launch vehicle.
Following three videos showing the trajectory from launch to final orbit.
Heliocentric:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ0ISGJXA_M
Earth-centric:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ybvOYEl9VU
This last video shows a dynamic perspective and lasts longer into the future (for an extended mission timeline):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKjcbmlAaYY
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 08:16 am
Will post photos during the day.
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 08:34 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 08:45 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 08:56 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 09:07 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 09:12 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 09:27 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 09:45 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 09:50 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 10:07 am
Post by: jacqmans on 10/18/2019 12:02 pm
Post by: starbase on 10/18/2019 08:24 pm
Venus - 26 Dec 2020
Venus - 08 Aug 2021
Earth - 26 Nov 2021
Venus - 03 Sep 2022
Venus - 18 Feb 2025
Venus - 24 Dec 2026
Venus - 17 Mar 2028
Venus - 10 Jun 2029
Venus - 02 Sep 2030
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLpEYMkf21c&
Post by: bolun on 11/03/2019 08:43 am
https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_Publications/ESA_Publications_Brochures/ESA_BR-345_Solar_Orbiter_Facing_the_Sun
Post by: Rondaz on 11/23/2019 04:14 pm
Lift off from Cape Canaveral is scheduled on 5/6 February..
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1197541445730742272
Post by: Rondaz on 12/23/2019 01:56 pm
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1209052663700164611
Post by: bolun on 01/06/2020 09:08 pm
Quote
Exciting to see our ride into space getting ready! 🚀 One month to launch and counting! 🗓 #SolarOrbiter #WeAreAllSolarOrbiters
Post by: jacqmans on 01/21/2020 12:31 pm
21/01/2020
Today, the Solar Orbiter control team is simulating launch for the penultimate time, before the Sun-seeking spacecraft lifts-off for real.
After months of nerve-wracking simulation training, which has seen the control team play out a range of scenarios where something goes wrong, mission control is almost “green for launch”.
http://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Warming_up_for_the_Sun
Post by: jacqmans on 01/21/2020 01:57 pm
21 January 2020
ESA’s new Sun explorer will be launched from Cape Canaveral on 6 February. Media are invited to Europe’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to follow the launch and moment of signal acquisition.
Facing the Sun
Solar Orbiter, an ESA-led mission with strong NASA participation, will provide the first views of the Sun’s unchartered polar regions from high-latitudes, giving unprecedented insight into how our parent star works. This important mission will also investigate the Sun-Earth connection, helping us to better understand and predict periods of stormy space weather.
Over the course of its mission, the spacecraft will use the gravity of Venus to slingshot it out of the plane of the Solar System, giving us new perspectives on our parent star. It will follow an elliptical orbit around the Sun, passing within the orbit of Mercury at its closest. Cutting-edge heatshield technology will ensure the spacecraft’s scientific instruments are protected as they face up to 13 times the heating of satellites in Earth orbit.
Solar Orbiter will use a combination of ten in situ and remote-sensing instruments to observe the turbulent solar surface, its hot outer atmosphere and changes in the solar wind. The mission will also work with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, collecting complementary datasets that will allow more science to be distilled from the two missions than either could achieve on their own.
Experts will present the mission, its technical challenges and scientific goals during a dedicated media briefing at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC).
Programme outline 6 February (all times local CET)
04:00 Doors open
04:30 Programme begins
Experts will present the mission, supplemented with live transmissions from Cape Canaveral including the moment of liftoff at 05:27 CET. The spacecraft will separate from the launcher around 53 minutes after launch, followed by the announcement of acquisition of spacecraft signal, which will be communicated live from ESOC by Flight Director Andrea Accomazzo.
Speakers include:
- Rolf Densing, Director of Operations and Head of ESOC
- Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor
- Markus Kissler-Patig, Head of Science and Operations
- Joachim Woch, Solar Orbiter instrument scientist
- Daniel Verscharen, Solar Orbiter instrument scientist
- Juha-Pekka Luntama, Head of Space Weather Office, Space Safety Programme
- Klaus Merz, Space Debris Analyst, Space Safety Programme
- Didier Morançais, Head of Future Science Program at Airbus
A Q&A session and opportunities for individual interview opportunities will be included in the programme.
06:30 End of briefing and breakfast
http://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/Call_for_Media_Solar_Orbiter_launch_to_face_the_Sun
Post by: Rondaz on 01/24/2020 04:41 pm
Anna Heiney Posted on January 24, 2020
The payload fairing that will provide a protective, aerodynamic cover for Solar Orbiter during launch is now in place. The two halves of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V fairing were moved into position and installed around the spacecraft on Jan. 20 inside a cleanroom at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida.
Solar Orbiter is an international cooperative mission between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA. The mission aims to study the Sun, its outer atmosphere and solar wind. The spacecraft will provide the first images of the Sun’s poles. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is managing the launch. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus Defence and Space.
Solar Orbiter will launch aboard an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2020/01/24/solar-orbiter-encapsulated-in-atlas-v-payload-fairing/
Post by: Rondaz on 01/26/2020 01:57 pm
Sarah Loff Posted on January 26, 2020
NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have adjusted the launch date of the Solar Orbiter spacecraft to Friday, Feb. 7, from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida due to the rescheduling of the mission’s Wet Dress Rehearsal. Solar Orbiter will launch aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41. The two-hour launch window opens at 11:15 p.m. EST. Solar Orbiter is an international cooperative mission between ESA and NASA. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus Defence and Space.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/solarorbiter/2020/01/26/solar-orbiter-launch-update/
Post by: jacqmans on 01/27/2020 10:01 am
Post by: jacqmans on 01/27/2020 10:02 am
Post by: jacqmans on 01/27/2020 10:05 am
Post by: jacqmans on 01/27/2020 10:05 am
Post by: jacqmans on 01/27/2020 10:45 am
Post by: jacqmans on 01/28/2020 01:15 pm
Filmed with an infrared camera, this sped-up video shows the rotation of the spacecraft, slowly revealing the Sun-facing panel of the spacecraft, covered with a heat shield to protect the entire platform from direct solar radiation. Sliding doors on the heat shield, visible in the upper part of the Sun-facing panel in this view, cover the feed-throughs of most of the remote-sensing instruments.
The colouring indicates the temperatures of the spacecraft surface, corresponding to the range indicated in the colour bar on the right-hand side. During this thermal-vacuum test on the spacecraft, the solar beam was used at its maximum flux of about 1800 W/m², reaching temperatures up to 107.6 °C. An additional thermal-vacuum test was conducted on the heat shield that protects the entire platform from direct solar radiation: during this test, which used infrared plates to simulate the Sun's heat, the heat shield reached higher temperatures, up to 520 °C, similar to what it will experience during operations.
http://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Paint_it_black_Stone_Age_sunscreen_for_Solar_Orbiter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSLSBhIoYcA
Post by: Rondaz on 02/05/2020 05:01 pm
Danielle Sempsrott Posted on February 5, 2020
Final preparations are underway for the launch of the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 9, at 11:03 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Following its Jan. 20 encapsulation inside the payload fairing at Astrotech’s processing facility in Titusville, the spacecraft was transported to the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Space Launch Complex 41 on Jan. 31.
The spacecraft, secured inside the fairing, was lifted by crane and vertically installed to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The rocket will remain inside the VIF until the day before launch, when it will then roll out to the launch complex in preparation for liftoff.
Solar Orbiter is an international cooperative mission between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA. The mission aims to study the Sun, its outer atmosphere and solar wind. The spacecraft will provide the first images of the Sun’s poles. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is managing the launch. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus Defence and Space.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/solarorbiter/2020/02/05/solar-orbiter-spacecraft-attached-to-atlas-v-rocket-for-upcoming-launch/
Post by: Rondaz on 02/06/2020 09:03 pm
Anna Heiney Posted on February 6, 2020
Solar Orbiter, an international collaborative mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, is slated to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Sunday, Feb. 9. Liftoff is targeted for 11:03 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Two briefings are planned for Friday, Feb. 7, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center:
1 to 2 p.m. EST: Prelaunch news conference
Participants:
Tim Dunn, Launch Director, NASA Launch Services Program
Cesar Garcia, Solar Orbiter Project Manager, European Space Agency
Haydée M. Maldonado, NASA Solar Orbiter Collaboration (SOC) Project Manager, Goddard Space Flight Center
Ian Walters, Project Manager Solar Orbiter, Airbus Defence and Space
Scott Messer, NASA LSP Program Manager, United Launch Alliance
Jessica Williams, 45th Space Wing Weather Officer
2:30 to 3:30 p.m. EST: Science briefing
Participants:
Daniel Mueller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist, European Space Agency
Nicky Fox, Director, NASA Heliophysics Division
Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate
Guenther Hasinger, Director of Science, European Space Agency
View on NASA Television or on the web at https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive.
Solar Orbiter will observe the Sun with high spatial resolution telescopes and capture observations in the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft to create a one-of-a-kind picture of how the Sun can affect the space environment throughout the solar system. The spacecraft also will provide the first-ever images of the Sun’s poles and the never-before-observed magnetic environment there, which helps drive the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and its periodic outpouring of solar storms.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2020/02/06/tune-in-friday-for-solar-orbiter-briefings/
Post by: Rondaz on 02/07/2020 03:58 pm
Anna Heiney Posted on February 7, 2020
Weather forecasters with the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron are predicting an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for the launch of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. Liftoff is slated for Sunday, Feb. 9, at 11:03 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The primary weather concerns at launch time are potential violation of the cumulus cloud rule and ground winds.
Launch and mission managers from the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and ULA are meeting at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch readiness review. This is a standard prelaunch review in which all parties review outstanding items and ensure the rocket, spacecraft and teams are “go” for launch.
Two televised briefings are planned for today:
1 to 2 p.m. EST: Prelaunch news conference
Participants:
Tim Dunn, Launch Director, NASA Launch Services Program
Cesar Garcia, Solar Orbiter Project Manager, European Space Agency
Alan Zide, Solar Orbiter Program Executive, NASA Headquarters
Ian Walters, Project Manager Solar Orbiter, Airbus Defence and Space
Scott Messer, NASA LSP Program Manager, United Launch Alliance
Jessica Williams, 45th Space Wing Weather Officer
2:30 to 3:30 p.m. EST: Science briefing
Participants:
Daniel Mueller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist, European Space Agency
Nicky Fox, Director, NASA Heliophysics Division
Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate
Guenther Hasinger, Director of Science, European Space Agency
View on NASA Television or on the web at https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive.
An international collaborative mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, Solar Orbiter will observe the Sun with high spatial resolution telescopes and capture observations in the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft to create a one-of-a-kind picture of how the Sun can affect the space environment throughout the solar system. The spacecraft also will provide the first-ever images of the Sun’s poles and the never-before-observed magnetic environment there, which helps drive the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and its periodic outpouring of solar storms.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2020/02/07/solar-orbiter-launch-weather-forecast-80-favorable-televised-briefings-today/
Post by: jacqmans on 02/07/2020 06:36 pm
Post by: ncb1397 on 02/08/2020 09:55 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppKYmW9haLE
Post by: jacqmans on 02/09/2020 06:17 pm
Post by: jacqmans on 02/09/2020 06:22 pm
Post by: jacqmans on 02/09/2020 06:31 pm
Post by: Rondaz on 02/10/2020 01:33 am
https://twitter.com/SolarBoy_2020/status/1226652421520330752
Post by: zubenelgenubi on 02/10/2020 01:41 am
We'll return to prime use of this thread for updates after the launch campaign is over--into the cruise and science mission phases.
Post by: Rondaz on 02/10/2020 04:34 am
Anna Heiney Posted on February 10, 2020
The team has received the signal from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.
Solar Orbiter is an international collaborative mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. The spacecraft will observe the Sun with high spatial resolution telescopes and capture observations in the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft to create a one-of-a-kind picture of how the Sun can affect the space environment throughout the solar system. The spacecraft also will provide the first-ever images of the Sun’s poles and the never-before-observed magnetic environment there, which helps drive the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and its periodic outpouring of solar storms.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/solarorbiter/2020/02/10/signal-acquired/
Post by: Rondaz on 02/10/2020 04:37 am
We have energy
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1226739940916170757
Post by: Rondaz on 02/10/2020 11:17 am
Anna Heiney Posted on February 10, 2020
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft is heading toward the Sun after a late-night launch from Florida’s Space Coast aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The vehicle lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 11:03 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 9.
After a nominal ascent, the spacecraft separated from the rocket’s Centaur upper stage. At 12:24 a.m. Monday, mission controllers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, received a signal from the spacecraft indicating that its solar panels had successfully deployed and were drawing power.
“The spacecraft is safe and pointing to the Sun,” said European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cesar Garcia, program manager for Solar Orbiter.
Solar Orbiter is beginning a seven-year mission to study the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft while also observing the Sun, giving scientists a better understanding of how our star can affect the space environment throughout the solar system. The spacecraft also will be the first to provide images of the Sun’s poles.
Before the science phase of the mission can begin, Solar Orbiter will undergo a series of checkouts, from initial deployments and checks of the spacecraft’s systems to turning on and checking its suite of 10 science instruments. According to Garcia, the testing phase should be finalized around the end of June 2020.
Solar Orbiter is a cooperative mission between the ESA and NASA. ESA’s Engineering & Test Center (ESTEC) in The Netherlands managed the development effort. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus. The European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Germany will operate Solar Orbiter. The Solar Orbiter mission is managed by ESA; the scientific payload elements of Solar Orbiter are being provided by ESA Member States, NASA and ESA. United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, provided the Atlas V launch service.
NASA Launch Director Tim Dunn of the agency’s Launch Services Program, which had responsibility for launch management, credited the combined efforts of the ULA, ESA and NASA teams to overcome challenges to make the launch successful.
“This is an international collaboration 10-plus years in the making,” Dunn said. “When a team is focused on mission success, that’s a language that we all speak.”
https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2020/02/10/solar-orbiter-embarks-on-ambitious-mission-to-face-the-sun/
Post by: eeergo on 02/11/2020 05:24 pm
Post by: Rondaz on 02/11/2020 06:39 pm
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1227278422570868736
Post by: Rondaz on 02/11/2020 06:40 pm
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1227296060940353536
Post by: FutureSpaceTourist on 02/13/2020 12:16 pm
Quote
#SolarOrbiter updates! ☀️🛰️
The instrument boom was safely deployed yesterday evening!
The ‘in situ’ science instruments on the boom will help measure the environment around the spacecraft, including the passing energetic particles of the solar wind.
#WeAreAllSolarOrbiters
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1227939347258839040
Quote
The second and third 'Radio and Plasma Waves' (RPW) antennas were then deployed in the early hours of this morning, completing the set of three that will help measure magnetic🧲and electric⚡fields at high time resolution.
#SolarOrbiter ☀️
twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1227939349926481921
Quote
The final of #SolarOrbiter’s deployments was also carried out this morning. The high-gain antenna (HGA) is a much larger, more powerful communication antenna than the two SolO initially uses to communicate with ground teams after launch. 📡🛰️
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1227939364363218944
Quote
This greater communication muscle is required to maintain contact over vast astronomical distances. 💪🔊
In the last hours, the ground team at #ESOC #MissionControl switched the radio link from the low-gain antennas to a higher data rate via the HGA.
#WeAreAllSolarOrbiters ☀️
Post by: Rondaz on 02/14/2020 04:09 pm
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1228309537159098368
Post by: eeergo on 02/17/2020 09:06 am
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/First_Solar_Orbiter_instrument_sends_measurements
Now instrument commissioning will take place for the next two months. First scientific data expected in mid-May, growing until June when the remote sensing instruments will be working.
Post by: eeergo on 02/20/2020 08:54 am
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1230427550381486085
Post by: harrystranger on 02/21/2020 11:15 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBrrjgosRQg
Post by: eeergo on 02/26/2020 06:19 pm
https://twitter.com/MPSGoettingen/status/1232658389869658113
Post by: Star One on 05/23/2020 10:42 am
The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft will pass approximately downstream of the position of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) in late May and early June 2020. We predict that the spacecraft may encounter the comet's ion tail around 2020 May 31-June 1, and that the comet's dust tail may be crossed on 2020 June 6. We outline the solar wind features and dust grain collisions that the spacecraft's instruments may detect when crossing the comet's two tails. Solar Orbiter will also pass close to the orbital path of C/2020 F8 (SWAN) on 2020 May 22, but we believe that it is unlikely to detect any material associated with that comet.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.03806
Post by: redliox on 05/23/2020 05:57 pm
Prospects for the In Situ detection of Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS by Solar Orbiter
The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft will pass approximately downstream of the position of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) in late May and early June 2020. We predict that the spacecraft may encounter the comet's ion tail around 2020 May 31-June 1, and that the comet's dust tail may be crossed on 2020 June 6. We outline the solar wind features and dust grain collisions that the spacecraft's instruments may detect when crossing the comet's two tails. Solar Orbiter will also pass close to the orbital path of C/2020 F8 (SWAN) on 2020 May 22, but we believe that it is unlikely to detect any material associated with that comet.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.03806
I'd be willing to bet it'd detect something, either a trace amount or unexpected amounts. Those tails and comas likely are the stuff that, coupled with solar wind of stars, contribute to the interstellar and intergalactic mediums. Potential for unexpected discoveries.
Post by: jacqmans on 05/29/2020 10:26 am
29/05/2020
ESA’s Solar Orbiter will cross through the tails of Comet ATLAS during the next few days. Although the recently launched spacecraft was not due to be taking science data at this time, mission experts have worked to ensure that the four most relevant instruments will be switched on during the unique encounter.
Solar Orbiter was launched on 10 February 2020. Since then, and with the exception of a brief shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, scientists and engineers have been conducting a series of tests and set-up routines known as commissioning.
The completion date for this phase was set at 15 June, so that the spacecraft could be fully functional for its first close pass of the Sun, or perihelion, in mid-June. However, the discovery of the chance encounter with the comet made things more urgent.
Serendipitously flying through a comet’s tail is a rare event for a space mission, something scientists know to have happened only six times before for missions that were not specifically chasing comets. All such encounters have been discovered in the spacecraft data after the event. Solar Orbiter’s upcoming crossing is the first to be predicted in advance.
It was noticed by Geraint Jones of the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK, who has a 20-year history of investigating such encounters. He discovered the first accidental tail crossing in 2000, while investigating a strange disturbance in data recorded by the ESA/NASA Ulysses Sun-studying spacecraft in 1996. This study revealed that the spacecraft had passed through the tail of Comet Hyakutake, also known as ‘The Great Comet of 1996’. Soon after the announcement, Ulysses crossed the tail of another comet, and then a third one in 2007.
Earlier this month, realising that Solar Orbiter was going to be 44 million kilometres downstream of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) in just a matter of weeks, Geraint immediately alerted the ESA team.
Bonus science
Solar Orbiter is equipped with a suite of 10 in-situ and remote-sensing instruments to investigate the Sun and the flow of charged particles it releases into space – the solar wind. Fortuitously, the four in-situ instruments are also perfect for detecting the comet’s tails because they measure the conditions around the spacecraft, and so they could return data about the dust grains and the electrically charged particles given off by the comet. These emissions create the comet’s two tails: the dust tail that is left behind in the comet’s orbit and the ion tail that points straight away from the Sun.
Solar Orbiter will cross the ion tail of Comet ATLAS on 31 May–1 June, and the dust tail on 6 June. If the ion tail is dense enough, Solar Orbiter’s magnetometer (MAG) might detect the variation of the interplanetary magnetic field because of its interaction with ions in the comet’s tail, while the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) could directly capture some of the tail particles.
When Solar Orbiter crosses the dust tail, depending on its density – which is extremely difficult to predict – it is possible that one or more tiny dust grains may hit the spacecraft at speeds of tens of kilometres per second. While there is no significant risk to the spacecraft from this, the dust grains themselves will be vaporised on impact, forming tiny clouds of electrically charged gas, or plasma, which could be detected by the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument.
“An unexpected encounter like this provides a mission with unique opportunities and challenges, but that’s good! Chances like this are all part of the adventure of science,” says Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science.
One of those challenges was that the instruments seemed unlikely to all be ready in time because of the commissioning. Now, thanks to a special effort by the instrument teams and ESA’s mission operations team, all four in-situ instruments will be on and collecting data, even though at certain times the instruments will need to be switched back into commissioning mode to ensure that the 15 June deadline is met.
“With these caveats, we are ready for whatever Comet ATLAS has to tell us,” says Daniel Müller, ESA Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter.
Expect the unexpected
Another challenge entails the comet’s behaviour. Comet ATLAS was discovered on 28 December 2019. During the next few months, it brightened so much that astronomers wondered whether it would become visible to the naked eye in May.
Unfortunately, in early April the comet fragmented. As a result, its brightness dropped significantly too, robbing sky watchers of the view. A further fragmentation in mid-May has diminished the comet even more, making it less likely to be detectable by Solar Orbiter.
Although the chances of detection have reduced, the effort is still worth making according to Geraint.
“With each encounter with a comet, we learn more about these intriguing objects. If Solar Orbiter detects Comet ATLAS's presence, then we'll learn more about how comets interact with the solar wind, and we can check, for example, whether our expectations of dust tail behaviour agree with our models,” he explains. “All missions that encounter comets provide pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.”
Geraint is the principal investigator of ESA’s future Comet Interceptor mission, which consists of three spacecraft and is scheduled for launch in 2028. It will make a much closer flyby of an as yet unknown comet that will be selected from the newly discovered comets nearer the time of launch (or even after that).
Grazing the Sun
Solar Orbiter is currently circling our parent star between the orbits of Venus and Mercury, with its first perihelion to take place on 15 June, around 77 million kilometres from the Sun. In coming years, it will get much closer, within the orbit of Mercury, around 42 million kilometres from the solar surface. Meanwhile, Comet ATLAS is already there, approaching its own perihelion, which is expected on 31 May, around 37 million kilometres from the Sun.
“This tail crossing is also exciting because it will happen for the first time at such close distances from the Sun, with the comet nucleus being inside the orbit of Mercury,” says Yannis Zouganelis, ESA Deputy Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter.
Understanding the dust environment in the innermost region of the Solar System is one of Solar Orbiter’s scientific objectives.
“Near-Sun comets like Comet ATLAS are sources of dust in the inner heliosphere and so this study will not only help us understand the comet, but also the dust environment of our star,” adds Yannis.
Looking at an icy object rather than the scorching Sun is certainly an exciting – and unexpected – way for Solar Orbiter to start its scientific mission, but that’s the nature of science.
“Scientific discovery is built on good planning and serendipity. In the three months since launch, the Solar Orbiter team has already proved that it’s ready for both,” says Daniel.
Solar Orbiter is an ESA-led mission with strong NASA participation. It is the first ‘medium’-class mission implemented in the Cosmic Vision 2015-25 programme, the current planning cycle for ESA’s space science missions.
http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_to_pass_through_the_tails_of_Comet_ATLAS
Post by: Rondaz on 06/09/2020 05:54 pm
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1270354880998367232
Post by: jacqmans on 06/15/2020 09:54 am
15/06/2020
ESA’s Sun-exploring mission Solar Orbiter has made its first close approach to the star on June 15, getting as close as 77 million kilometres to its surface, about half the distance between the Sun and Earth.
In the week following this first perihelion, the point in the orbit closest to the Sun, the mission scientists will test the spacecraft’s ten science instruments, including the six telescopes on-board, which will acquire close-up images of the Sun in unison for the first time. According to ESA’s Solar Orbiter Project Scientist Daniel Müller, the images, to be released in mid-July, will be the closest images of the Sun ever captured.
http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_makes_first_close_approach_to_the_Sun
Post by: jacqmans on 06/29/2020 02:04 pm
29/06/2020
ESA’s Solar Orbiter has successfully completed four months of painstaking technical verification, known as commissioning. Despite the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the spacecraft is now ready to begin performing science as it continues its cruise towards the Sun.
When Solar Obiter blasted into space on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 10 February, the teams behind the €1.5 billion mission did not anticipate that within weeks, the spread of COVID-19 would evict them from their high-tech control rooms, making the challenging process of commissioning the spacecraft’s instruments even harder.
In normal circumstances, many of the project’s scientists and engineers would have gathered at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Together, they would have worked in close cooperation with the spacecraft operators, to bring the spacecraft and its instruments to life.
This happened more or less as usual during the most challenging early weeks of Solar Orbiter’s in-orbit existence, but when the instrument teams were invited to ESOC in March, the situation in Europe was rapidly changing.
Each of the ten instrument teams needed many representatives on site. Two or three from each team were allowed in a dedicated Solar Orbiter control room. “The other representatives worked from a dedicated support area,” says Sylvain Lodiot, ESA’s Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Operations Manager. It was not unusual to have 15 or more people in the main control room working too. But within a week, it became clear that European countries were heading into lockdown and so the external teams were asked to return home. The situation became even more serious when several workers at ESOC tested positive for the virus, and the site effectively closed.
http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_ready_for_science_despite_COVID-19_setbacks
Post by: jacqmans on 07/09/2020 10:30 am
9 July 2020
The first images from ESA’s new Sun-observing spacecraft Solar Orbiter will be released to the public on 16 July 2020. Media representatives are invited to watch an online press briefing, which will take place at 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST), and talk to the scientists behind the mission.
Solar Orbiter, launched on 10 February, completed its commissioning phase in mid-June and performed its first close approach to the Sun. Shortly thereafter, the European and US science teams behind the mission’s 10 instruments were able to test the entire instrument suite in concert for the first time.
- Better than expected
Despite the setbacks the teams faced while commissioning the spacecraft and its instruments amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the first imaging campaign has been a great success.
“The first images are exceeding our expectations,” says Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA. “We can already see hints of very interesting phenomena that we have not been able to observe in detail before. The 10 instruments on board Solar Orbiter work beautifully, and together provide a holistic view of the Sun and the solar wind. This makes us confident that Solar Orbiter will help us answer profound open questions about the Sun.”
- We have never been closer with a camera
No other images of the Sun have been taken from such a close distance. During its first perihelion, the point in the spacecraft’s elliptical orbit closest to the Sun, Solar Orbiter got as close as 77 million kilometres from the star’s surface, about half the distance between the Sun and Earth. The spacecraft will eventually make much closer approaches to the Sun. The spacecraft is now in its cruise phase, gradually adjusting its orbit around the Sun. Once in its science phase, which will commence in late 2021, the spacecraft will get as close as 42 million kilometres from the Sun’s surface, closer than the planet Mercury. The spacecraft’s operators will gradually tilt Solar Orbiter’s orbit to enable the probe to get the first proper view of the Sun’s poles.
- An international mission
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. Twelve ESA Member States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) as well as NASA contributed to the science payload. Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal contributed to building the spacecraft but not to the science payload.
Additional information for media in the UK and Ireland:
The UK played a key role in development of the Solar Orbiter mission. The spacecraft was built by Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage. British scientists are involved in four out of the ten instruments aboard the spacecraft. Researchers from Imperial College London and the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL MSSL) lead the teams behind Solar Orbiter’s Magnetometer (MAG) and Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) respectively. UCL also has a key role in the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), which will enable the scientists to study processes on the Sun in greater detail than ever before. STFC RAL Space led the consortium that developed and built the extreme ultraviolet imaging spectrometer SPICE
UK Space Agency media contacts:
Gareth Bethell – UK Space Agency
[email protected]
In Ireland, ENBIO developed the black coating for the heat shield, an enabling technology for the mission.
For contributions from the other Member states, please refer to the translated version of the Call for Media here.
Event programme
Members of the public can watch an online press briefing at https://www.esa.int/esawebtv on Thursday 16 July at 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST).
Among the speakers will be:
Daniel Müller – Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA
Holly R. Gilbert – Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at NASA
David Berghmans – Royal Observatory of Belgium, Principal Investigator of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI)
Sami Solanki – Director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Principal Investigator of the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI)
Christopher J. Owen – Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Principal Investigator of the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA)
Jose-Luis Pellon-Bailon – Solar Orbiter Deputy Spacecraft Operations Manager
Media representatives with valid press credentials should register via https://www.esa.int/Contact/mediaregistration by Wednesday 15 July 12:00 CEST.
Questions to the panel can be asked via [email protected].
Social media
Follow ESA at @ESA
Follow ESA Solar Orbiter at @ESASolarOrbiter
Follow ESA Science at @esascience
The official hashtags are #SolarOrbiter, #TheSunUpClose and #WeAreAllSolarOrbiters
Information
More information about Solar Orbiter: https://www.esa.int/solarorbiter
In-depth information about Solar Orbiter: https://sci.esa.int/solar-orbiter
Images
Images of Solar Orbiter
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Search?SearchText=solar+orbiter&result_type=images
Terms and conditions for using ESA images
https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/ESA_Multimedia/Copyright_Notice_Images
Videos
Videos of Solar Orbiter
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Search?SearchText=solar+orbiter&result_type=videos
Terms and conditions for using ESA videos:
https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions
Post by: eeergo on 07/16/2020 12:32 pm
First images are out, along with results:
- "Campfire" small (Earth country-sized) flares on the Sun's surface.
- Active regions on the back side of the Sun.
- Solar wind.
http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_s_first_images_reveal_campfires_on_the_Sun
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 02:57 pm
On 30 May, Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun, meaning that it was closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope has ever been before.
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 02:58 pm
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 02:58 pm
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 02:59 pm
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 02:59 pm
They show the Sun’s appearance at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, which is in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Images at this wavelength reveal the upper atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, with a temperature of around 1 million degrees.
EUI takes full disk images (first in the sequence) using the Full Sun Imager (FSI) telescope, as well as high resolution images using the HRIEUV telescope.
On 30 May, Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun, meaning that it was closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope has ever been before. This allowed EUI to see features in the solar corona of only 400 km across. As the mission continues, Solar Orbiter will go closer to the Sun and this will increase the instrument’s resolving power by a factor of two at closest approach.
Even before this, however, these images reveal a multitude of small flaring loops, erupting bright spots and dark, moving fibrils. A ubiquitous feature of the solar surface, revealed for the first time by these images, have been called ‘campfires’. They are omnipresent minuature eruptions that could be contributing to the high temperatures of the solar corona and the origin of the solar wind.
The colour on these images has been artificially added because the original wavelength detected by the instrument is invisible to the human eye.
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/07/Solar_Orbiter_s_first_views_of_the_Sun6
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 03:01 pm
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 03:04 pm
ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has sent back its first images of the Sun. At 77 million kilometres from the surface, this is the closest a camera has ever flown to our nearest star. The pictures reveal features on the Sun’s exterior that have never been seen in detail before.
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 03:06 pm
The first images from ESA’s Solar Orbiter are already exceeding expectations and revealing interesting new phenomena on the Sun.
Post by: jacqmans on 07/16/2020 03:11 pm
Thursday, 16 July 2020
The first images from Solar Orbiter, a new Sun-observing mission by ESA and NASA, have revealed omnipresent miniature solar flares, dubbed ‘campfires’, near the surface of our closest star.
According to the scientists behind the mission, seeing phenomena that were not observable in detail before hints at the enormous potential of Solar Orbiter, which has only just finished its early phase of technical verification known as commissioning.
“These are only the first images and we can already see interesting new phenomena,” says Daniel Müller, ESA’s Solar Orbiter Project Scientist. “We didn’t really expect such great results right from the start. We can also see how our ten scientific instruments complement each other, providing a holistic picture of the Sun and the surrounding environment.”
Solar Orbiter, launched on 10 February 2020, carries six remote-sensing instruments, or telescopes, that image the Sun and its surroundings, and four in situ instruments that monitor the environment around the spacecraft. By comparing the data from both sets of instruments, scientists will get insights into the generation of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles from the Sun that influences the entire Solar System.
The unique aspect of the Solar Orbiter mission is that no other spacecraft has been able to take images of the Sun’s surface from a closer distance.
Closest images of the Sun reveal new phenomena
The campfires shown in the first image set were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) from Solar Orbiter’s first perihelion, the point in its elliptical orbit closest to the Sun. At that time, the spacecraft was only 77 million km away from the Sun, about half the distance between Earth and the star.
“The campfires are little relatives of the solar flares that we can observe from Earth, million or billion times smaller,” says David Berghmans of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB), Principal Investigator of the EUI instrument, which takes high-resolution images of the lower layers of the Sun’s atmosphere, known as the solar corona. “The Sun might look quiet at the first glance, but when we look in detail, we can see those miniature flares everywhere we look.”
The scientists do not know yet whether the campfires are just tiny versions of big flares, or whether they are driven by different mechanisms. There are, however, already theories that these miniature flares could be contributing to one of the most mysterious phenomena on the Sun, the coronal heating.
Unravelling the Sun’s mysteries
“These campfires are totally insignificant each by themselves, but summing up their effect all over the Sun, they might be the dominant contribution to the heating of the solar corona,” says Frédéric Auchère, of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), France, Co-Principal Investigator of EUI.
The solar corona is the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere that extends millions of kilometres into outer space. Its temperature is more than a million degrees Celsius, which is orders of magnitude hotter than the surface of the Sun, a ‘cool’ 5500 °C. After many decades of studies, the physical mechanisms that heat the corona are still not fully understood, but identifying them is considered the ‘holy grail’ of solar physics.
“It’s obviously way too early to tell but we hope that by connecting these observations with measurements from our other instruments that ‘feel’ the solar wind as it passes the spacecraft, we will eventually be able to answer some of these mysteries,” says Yannis Zouganelis, Solar Orbiter Deputy Project Scientist at ESA.
Seeing the far side of the Sun
The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) is another cutting-edge instrument aboard Solar Orbiter. It makes high-resolution measurements of the magnetic field lines on the surface of the Sun. It is designed to monitor active regions on the Sun, areas with especially strong magnetic fields, which can give birth to solar flares.
During solar flares, the Sun releases bursts of energetic particles that enhance the solar wind that constantly emanates from the star into the surrounding space. When these particles interact with Earth’s magnetosphere, they can cause magnetic storms that can disrupt telecommunication networks and power grids on the ground.
“Right now, we are in the part of the 11-year solar cycle when the Sun is very quiet,” says Sami Solanki, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany, and PHI Principal Investigator. “But because Solar Orbiter is at a different angle to the Sun than Earth, we could actually see one active region that wasn’t observable from Earth. That is a first. We have never been able to measure the magnetic field at the back of the Sun.”
The magnetograms, showing how the strength of the solar magnetic field varies across the Sun’s surface, could be then compared with the measurements from the in situ instruments.
“The PHI instrument is measuring the magnetic field on the surface, we see structures in the Sun’s corona with EUI, but we also try to infer the magnetic field lines going out into the interplanetary medium, where Solar Orbiter is,” says Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta, PHI Co-Principal Investigator, of Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain.
Catching the solar wind
The four in situ instruments on Solar Orbiter then characterise the magnetic field lines and solar wind as it passes the spacecraft.
Christopher Owen, of University College London Mullard Space Science Laboratory and Principal Investigator of the in situ Solar Wind Analyser, adds, “Using this information, we can estimate where on the Sun that particular part of the solar wind was emitted, and then use the full instrument set of the mission to reveal and understand the physical processes operating in the different regions on the Sun which lead to solar wind formation.”
“We are all really excited about these first images – but this is just the beginning,” adds Daniel. “Solar Orbiter has started a grand tour of the inner Solar System, and will get much closer to the Sun within less than two years. Ultimately, it will get as close as 42 million km, which is almost a quarter of the distance from Sun to Earth.”
“The first data are already demonstrating the power behind a successful collaboration between space agencies and the usefulness of a diverse set of images in unravelling some of the Sun’s mysteries,” comments Holly Gilbert, Director of the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at NASA.
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. Nineteen ESA Member States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), as well as NASA, contributed to the science payload and/or the spacecraft. The satellite was built by prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space in the UK.
Follow this link for Solar Orbiter First Images photo gallery and additional information: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_s_first_images_reveal_campfires_on_the_Sun
Link to the photo gallery:
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_s_first_view_of_the_Sun_image_gallery
Post by: eeergo on 09/10/2020 02:40 pm
Post by: jacqmans on 09/30/2020 02:21 pm
30/09/2020
ESA has released its first Solar Orbiter data to the scientific community and the wider public. The instruments contributing to this data release come from the suite of in-situ instruments that measure the conditions surrounding the spacecraft.
The instruments contributing data to the release are the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD), the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument, and the Magnetometer (MAG). Data from the fourth in-situ instrument, the Solar Wind Plasma Analyser (SWA) will be released later this year. Solar Orbiter’s remote-sensing instruments will only start their nominal operations in November 2021. They are continuing to perform tests and calibrations during short intervals until then.
As soon as a mission is in space, the teams work to commission the instruments and start collecting science data. As soon as the information starts to flow in, interest builds towards the first data release.
In the case of many space missions, the first data release usually comes after six months or a year, to reward the teams that have built the instruments with an exclusive first look at the data. Long before launch, however, it was agreed that Solar Orbiter would be different.
“We want Solar Orbiter to be one of the most open space missions. This means open to the whole world, not only to the teams who have built the instruments,” says Yannis Zouganelis, Solar Orbiter Deputy Project Scientist for ESA.
Based on the successful approach taken by previous solar physics missions, it was decided that the time between the data being received on Earth and it being released to the world would be at most 90 days. During this period, the instrument teams calibrate the data taken by Solar Orbiter from its ever-changing distance to the Sun. That would be a fast turn-around at the best of times; with the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic this year, it is a double achievement to hit the deadline.
“To do this in COVID-19 times was very challenging,” says Yannis, “But we are ready to deliver the data to the scientific community according to the plan, so that they can do science with it.”
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_releases_first_data_to_the_public
Post by: Rondaz on 11/29/2020 09:46 pm
https://twitter.com/_SpaceWeather_/status/1333104825236598787
Post by: jacqmans on 12/11/2020 07:07 am
10/12/2020
Solar Orbiter’s latest results show that the mission is making the first direct connections between events at the solar surface and what’s happening in interplanetary space around the spacecraft. It is also giving us new insights into solar ‘campfires’, space weather and disintegrating comets.
“I could not be more pleased with the performance of Solar Orbiter and the various teams that keep it and its instruments operating,” says Daniel Müller, ESA Solar Orbiter Project Scientist.
“It has been a real team effort under difficult circumstances this year, and now we are beginning to see those efforts really paying off.”
Solar Orbiter’s ten scientific instruments are split into two groups. There are six remote sensing telescopes, and four in-situ instruments. The remote sensing instruments look at the Sun and its extended atmosphere, the corona. The in-situ instruments measure the particles around the spacecraft, which have been released by the Sun and are known as the solar wind, along with its magnetic and electric fields. Tracing the origin of those particles and fields back to the solar surface is one of the key objectives of Solar Orbiter.
During Solar Orbiter’s first close pass of the Sun, which took place on 15 June and saw the spacecraft approach to 77 million kilometres, both remote sensing and in-situ instruments were recording data.
https://youtu.be/o5NEHF5qi5c
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_turning_pictures_into_physics
Post by: jacqmans on 12/17/2020 02:30 pm
17/12/2020
Solar Orbiter is getting ready for the first of many gravity assist flybys of Venus on 27 December, to start bringing it closer to the Sun and tilting its orbit in order to observe our star from different perspectives.
Just as the majority of us will remain safely at home under various COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures during what is traditionally a holiday period, the flyby – a routine event in the world of flying spacecraft – will also be monitored by the spacecraft operations managers remotely as well.
Closest approach will take place at 12:39 UTC (13:39 CET) on 27 December, and will see the spacecraft fly some 7 500 km from the Venus cloud tops. Later flybys, from 2025, will see much closer encounters of just a few hundred kilometres.
During the upcoming flyby several in-situ science instruments – MAG, RPW and some sensors of EPD – will be switched on to record the magnetic, plasma and particle environment around the spacecraft as it encounters Venus. (It is not possible to take images of Venus during the flyby because the spacecraft must remain facing the Sun.)
In order to properly line up for the flyby, specialists from ESA's ground stations and flight dynamics teams conducted a so-called ‘Delta-DOR’ campaign, using an advanced technique – Delta-Differential One-Way Ranging – to precisely determine the spacecraft's position in space, and its trajectory.
In Delta-DOR, a set of widely separated ground stations on Earth are used to receive the spacecraft's radio signals, giving a first result for its location. Then, this result is compared to locations of known stellar radio sources previously mapped by other missions, resulting in a corrected and ultra-precise final plot. The Delta-DOR technique allows operators to determine where a spacecraft is to within a few hundred metres, even at a distance of 100 million km.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_prepares_for_festive_Venus_flyby
Post by: Mammutti on 12/27/2020 12:56 pm
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1343179620271730690
Quote from: ESA Operations
Update from the flight control team: 'We're post-Closest Approach in TM now on ground' = We have confirmed #VenusFlyby complete by checking the telemetry, so all #good
Our @ESASolarOrbiter has adopted its post-flyby attitude... all good 230 990 088.889 km away!
Post by: jacqmans on 01/26/2021 03:14 pm
26/01/2021
This recording was made on 18 November 2020 by the Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) camera on board the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft.
Three Solar System planets are visible in the foreground: Venus (left), Earth (middle), and Mars (right). Stars are visible in the background, appearing to move in Solar Orbiter’s recording while the spacecraft travels around the Sun. The planets are also moving slightly in the SoloHI field-of-view, but their apparent motions are different because of their individual orbital motions around the Sun.
Venus is the brightest object in the video, roughly 48 million kilometres away from Solar Orbiter. The distance to Earth was 251 million kilometres and 332 million kilometres to Mars on that day. The Sun is located on the right, outside the video frame.
At the moment of the recording, Solar Orbiter was on its way to Venus for its first gravity assist flyby, which happened on 27 December. Venus and Earth flybys will bring the spacecraft closer to the Sun and tilt its orbit in order to observe our star from different perspectives.
Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been built to study the Sun and the solar wind, taking images of our star from closer than any spacecraft before. During its initial cruise phase, which lasts until November 2021, Solar Orbiter is already acquiring data constantly with its four in situ instruments. These instruments measure the conditions around the spacecraft itself.
SoloHI is one of the six remote-sensing instruments onboard the mission. During cruise phase, these are still being calibrated during specific periods, but are switched off otherwise. SoloHI takes images of the solar wind – the stream of charged particles constantly released by the Sun into outer space – by capturing the light scattered by electrons in the wind.
The solar wind, along with powerful ejections of plasma from the Sun, can cause disturbances in our space environment – a phenomenon called “space weather” – which can potentially harm astronauts, satellites in space and disrupt ground-based technology.
Understanding what drives the solar wind and the acceleration of solar wind particles, will helps us better predict periods of stormy space weather.
Where is Solar Orbiter now? Track the location of Solar Orbiter from home using this interactive chart!
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA.
Image credit: Solar Orbiter/SoloHI Team/ ESA & NASA; U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Post by: Rondaz on 05/10/2021 11:41 pm
https://youtu.be/QNhlflwVHj0
Post by: jacqmans on 05/17/2021 12:16 pm
ESA Press Release for Immediate Release
Monday 17 May, 2021
First Solar Orbiter movies showing coronal mass ejections ( CMEs)
A pair of CMEs were detected by multiple instruments during February's close flyby of the Sun
CMEs are eruptions of particles from the solar atmosphere that blast out into the Solar System and have the potential to trigger space weather at Earth
Solar Orbiter will begin its main science mission in November this year
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA
Cruise phase checkouts
Solar Orbiter launched on 10 February 2020 and is currently in cruise phase ahead of the main science mission, which begins November this year. While the four in situ instruments have been on for much of the time since launch, collecting science data on the space environment in the vicinity of the spacecraft, the operation of the six remote sensing instruments during cruise phase is focused primarily on instrument calibration, and they are only active during dedicated checkout windows and specific campaigns.
A close perihelion pass of the Sun on 10 February 2021, which took the spacecraft within half the distance between Earth and the Sun, was one such opportunity for the teams to carry out dedicated observations, checking instrument settings and so on, in order to best prepare for the upcoming science phase. In full science mode, the remote sensing and in situ instruments will routinely make joint observations together.
At the same time as the close solar pass, the spacecraft was ‘behind’ the Sun as viewed from Earth, resulting in very low data transfer rates. The data from the close flyby have therefore taken a long time to be completely downloaded and is still being analysed.
Chance observations
By happy coincidence, three of Solar Orbiter’s remote sensing instruments captured a pair of coronal mass ejections in the days after closest approach. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), the Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) and the Metis coronagraph captured different aspects of two CMEs that erupted over the course of the day.
The CMEs were also seen by ESA’s Proba-2 and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) from the ‘front’ side of the Sun, while NASA's STEREO-A, located away from the Sun-Earth line, also caught a glimpse,together providing a global view of the events.
For Solar Orbiter’s SoloHI, this was the first coronal mass ejection seen by the instrument; Metis previously detected one on 17 January, and EUI detected one in November last year, while the spacecraft’s in situ detectors bagged their first CME soon after launch in April 2020. Many of the in situ instruments also detected particle activity around the February 2021 CMEs; the data are being analysed and will be presented at a later date.
For SoloHI the CME sighting was particularly serendipitous , captured during ‘bonus’ telemetry time. Upgrades in Earth-based antennas made since after the mission was planned allowed the team to downlink data at times they previously didn’t expect to be able to, albeit at lower telemetry rates. They therefore decided to collect just one tile’s worth of data (the instrument has four detector tiles) at a two-hour rate, and happened to capture a CME during that time.
Space weather
CMEs are an important part of ‘space weather’. The particles spark aurorae on planets with atmospheres, but can cause malfunctions in some technology and can also be harmful to unprotected astronauts. It is therefore important to understand CMEs, and be able to track their progress as they propagate through the Solar System.
Studying CMEs is just one aspect of Solar Orbiter’s mission. The spacecraft will also return unprecedented close-up observations of the Sun and from high solar latitudes, providing the first images of the uncharted polar regions of the Sun. Together with solar wind and magnetic field measurements in the vicinity of the spacecraft, the mission will provide new insight into how our parent star works in terms of the 11-year solar cycle, and how we can better predict periods of stormy space weather.
Full article with images and videos: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_images_first_coronal_mass_ejections
Further information
More information about Solar Orbiter: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter
Post by: Rondaz on 05/17/2021 05:11 pm
https://youtu.be/LrJe2g59sAE
Post by: jacqmans on 08/02/2021 11:46 am
02/08/2021
Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo are set to make space history with two Venus flybys just 33 hours apart on 9 and 10 August.
The two spacecraft need the gravitational swingby to help them lose a little orbital energy in order to reach their destinations towards the centre of the Solar System. The double flyby also offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the Venus environment from different locations at same time and, moreover, in locations that are not typically visited by a dedicated planetary orbiter.
Solar Orbiter, a partnership between ESA and NASA, will fly by Venus on 9 August with a closest approach of 7995 km at 04:42 UTC. Throughout its mission it makes repeated gravity assist flybys of Venus to get closer to the Sun, and to change its orbital inclination, boosting it out of the ecliptic plane, to get the best – and first – views of the Sun’s poles.
BepiColombo, a partnership between ESA and JAXA, will fly by Venus at 13:48 UTC on 10 August at an altitude of just 550 km. BepiColombo is on its way to the mysterious innermost planet of the solar system, Mercury. It needs flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury itself, together with the spacecraft’s solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury orbit against the immense gravitational pull of the Sun.
Photos or it didn’t happen
It is not possible to take high-resolution imagery of Venus with the science cameras onboard either mission – Solar Orbiter must remain facing the Sun, and the main camera onboard BepiColombo is shielded by the transfer module that will deliver the two planetary orbiters to Mercury. However, two of BepiColombo’s three monitoring cameras will be taking photos around the time of close approach and in the days after as the planet fades from view.
The cameras provide black-and-white snapshots in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, and are positioned on the Mercury Transfer Module such that they also capture the spacecraft’s solar arrays and antennas. During the closest approach Venus will fill the entire field of view, but as the spacecraft changes its orientation the planet will be seen passing behind the spacecraft structural elements.
The images will be downloaded in batches, one by one, with the first image expected to be available in the evening of 10 August, and the majority on 11 August.
Furthermore, there may be an opportunity for Solar Orbiter’s SoloHI imager to observe the nightside of Venus in the week before closest approach. SoloHI usually takes images of the solar wind – the stream of charged particles constantly released from the Sun – by capturing the light scattered by electrons in the wind.
It is – unfortunately! – not expected that one spacecraft will be able to image the other. Even at their closest the spacecraft will be more than 575 thousand kilometres apart.
Multipoint science
Solar Orbiter has been acquiring data near-constantly since launch in February 2020 with its four in situ instruments that measure the environment around the spacecraft itself. Both Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will collect data on the magnetic and plasma environment of Venus from different locations. At the same time, JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft is in orbit around Venus, creating a unique constellation of datapoints. It will take many months to collate the coordinated flyby measurements and analyse them in a meaningful way.
The data collected during the flybys will also provide useful inputs to ESA’s future Venus orbiter, EnVision, which was selected earlier this year and will launch to Venus in the 2030s.
Where to next?
Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo both have one more flyby this year.
During the night of 1-2 October BepiColombo will see its destination for the first time, making its first of six flybys of Mercury – with this one from just 200 km distance. The two planetary orbiters will be delivered into Mercury orbit in late 2025, tasked with studying all aspects of this mysterious inner planet from its core to surface processes, magnetic field, and exosphere, to better understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star.
On 27 November, Solar Orbiter will make a final flyby of Earth at 460 km, kicking off the start of its main mission. It will continue to make regular flybys of Venus to progressively increase its orbit inclination to best observe the Sun’s uncharted polar regions, which is key to understanding the Sun’s 11 year activity cycle.
Follow the action!
Follow @ESASolarOrbiter, @bepicolombo together with @ESA_Bepi, @ESA_MTM and @JAXA_MMO, and @Esaoperations for real-time updates during the flybys.
We’ll also be hosting a Twitter Space on Monday 9 Aug around 13:00 CEST to talk all things flybys. Follow the host account @esaoperations for the link nearer the time. If you have questions ask them in advance using #AskESA – if you’re online at the time of the Space, we’ll invite selected speakers to ask their questions live during the chat!
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/ESA_gets_ready_for_double_Venus_flyby
Post by: jacqmans on 08/02/2021 11:47 am
02/08/2021
Key moments during Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo’s flyby of Venus within 33 hours of each other on 9 and 10 August 2021, respectively.
Times are given in UTC (BST=UTC +1 hours; CEST=UTC +2 hours; JST=UTC +9 hours; EST=UTC -4 hours).
While many of the in situ instruments will be on and collecting data as usual, of particular note is the activation of two of BepiColombo’s three monitoring cameras, which will aim to capture Venus during the flyby and in the days after. The images are not downloaded immediately; it is expected that the first images will be available at the end of the day on 10 August and into 11 August. There is also a potential imaging opportunity for the SoloHI instrument on Solar Orbiter in the week leading up to the flyby.
Post by: Rondaz on 08/09/2021 03:19 am
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1424524191081115648
Post by: Rondaz on 08/09/2021 11:47 am
https://twitter.com/esa/status/1424645732003364868
Post by: Rondaz on 08/09/2021 11:48 am
@bepicolombo! We’ll be having a lunchtime @TwitterSpaces chat with @esaoperations to hear more. Listen in here at 13:00 CEST https://
https://twitter.com/esascience/status/1424631556023390209
Post by: Rondaz on 08/09/2021 03:51 pm
https://youtu.be/P3kLRDvavbw
Post by: Rondaz on 08/10/2021 08:09 pm
21:17 10 Aug 2021
The solar probe Solar Orbiter and the Mercurial station BepiColombo made a double flyby past Venus, 33 hours apart. This made it possible to simultaneously study both the day and night sides of the planet, as well as its magnetosphere and near-planetary plasma, according to representatives of the missions ( 1 , 2 ) on Twitter.
Venus is of great interest to scientists for many reasons - this planet is very similar to Earth in size and mass, but very different from it in other properties. Planetologists are interested in the planet's current geological activity, the complex dynamics and composition of its atmosphere, including the mystery of the appearance of phosphine, considered a potential biomarker, as well as the unusual properties of its magnetosphere and ionosphere.
Currently, only the Japanese Akatsuki spacecraft operates in orbit around Venus , however, scientists have the opportunity to explore the planet during encounters with spacecraft that are sent to the inner solar system, such as the Parker probe .
On August 9 and 10, two European spacecraft made their first double flyby of Venus, just 33 hours apart. First, the solar probe Solar Orbiter flew at a minimum distance of 7995 kilometers from the night side of the planet on August 9 at 07:42 Moscow time, and then, on August 10 at 16:51 Moscow time, the Mercurian research station flew by at a minimum distance of 552 kilometers from the day side of Venus BepiColombo.
Both flights were made as part of gravity assist maneuvers near Venus and will give scientists a lot of new scientific data on the magnetosphere, plasma environment and the planet's atmosphere, including images. "BepiColombo" will not return to Venus, and Solar Orbiter will make seven more gravitational maneuvers near the planet in the future.
Earlier we talked about future missions to Venus: the European orbiter EnVision , the DAVINCI + lander, which is being developed by NASA, the long-lived Russian station "Venera-D", which we wrote about in the material and blog , as well as the Indian automatic spacecraft.
Alexander Voytyuk
https://nplus1.ru/news/2021/08/10/venus-double-flyby
Post by: jacqmans on 08/13/2021 12:22 pm
13/08/2021
ESA’s Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo spacecraft made a historic Venus flyby earlier this week, passing by the planet within 33 hours of each other and capturing unique imagery and data during the encounter.
Solar Orbiter flew past Venus on 9 August at a distance of 7995 km, while BepiColombo skimmed past at just 552 km from the planet’s surface on 10 August. The flybys were needed to give the spacecraft a gravity assist to help them reach their next destinations. BepiColombo will make the first of six flybys at Mercury during the night of 1-2 October, before entering orbit in 2025. Solar Orbiter will make a close Earth flyby on 27 November, before further Venus slingshots will tilt its inclination in order to get the first-ever views of the Sun’s poles.
The Venus flybys required extremely precise deep-space navigation work, ensuring that the spacecraft were on the correct approach trajectories accurate to within just a few kilometres at a distance of 187.7 million km from Earth.
Feeling the heat
As expected during BepiColombo’s close flyby, the spacecraft modules felt a rapid increase of heat as it passed from the nightside to dayside of the planet. The JAXA Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), situated inside the sunshield, recorded an increase of 110 degrees Celsius on one of its eight solar panels, from -100ºC to +10ºC. Within the spacecraft itself only an increase of 2-3 degrees was observed, demonstrating the effectiveness of the insulation.
On the European Mercury Transfer Module, a temperature increase of 50 degrees was observed on the spacecraft radiator, while the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) recorded a change of about 20 degrees.
Gravity tug
Both Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo also felt the immense gravitational pull of the planet in the angular momentum of their reaction wheels, which are used to maintain spacecraft attitude, keeping it pointing on course.
The Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) onboard the BepiColombo MPO recorded the accelerations measured by the spacecraft with great sensitivity. The ISA team then translated the acceleration data into frequency to make them audible to the human ear. The resulting sound is rich with interesting effects due to the planet’s gravity acting on the spacecraft structure, the response of the spacecraft to the rapid temperature changes, and the reaction wheels that are working hard to compensate for these effects.
The accelerometer also felt the tidal effects acting on the spacecraft as it flew at different distances past Venus. The very small difference in gravitational attraction between BepiColombo’s centre of mass and ISA relative to Venus could be detected, the first time an accelerometer recorded this effect at another planet. The team is analysing this precious data and will use the measurement as a reference to fine-tune the instrument ahead of the scientific phase at Mercury.
Multipoint science
Many of the science instruments were on during the flybys, using the opportunity to collect data on the Venusian magnetic, plasma and particle environment around the spacecraft. Moreover, the unique aspect of the dual flyby is that the two datasets can be compared from locations not usually sampled by a planetary orbiter.
The magnetometer teams from both spacecraft report they saw the effects of the flyby in their data, allowing a rare glimpse into the solar wind interaction with a planetary atmosphere.
The BepiColombo MPO magnetometer team created a simple sonification of the variability of the total magnetic field as they flew past Venus. The audio captures low-frequency wind-like noises caused by the solar wind and its interaction with Venus. The sudden transition of the spacecraft into the very calm solar wind at the bow shock (the location where the planet’s magnetosphere meets the solar wind) is clearly recorded.
The Solar Orbiter magnetometer team also describes the magnetic field increasing in magnitude due to the compression of the field as they travelled past the flanks of the planet, and then a sharp drop as they crossed the bow shock back into the solar wind again.
And while Solar Orbiter crossed through the tail of the magnetosphere and out of the bow shock into the solar wind, BepiColombo was ‘upstream’, so the teams will know the input magnetic field conditions throughout the encounter to see how Venus has affected the solar wind downstream. It will take many weeks to make a detailed analysis of the two datasets.
Sensors on both BepiColombo MPO and MMO were also monitoring for ions circulating in the magnetosphere and in the close vicinity of Venus. Particles follow electromagnetic fields, and are also strongly related to processes in the ionosphere and atmosphere. For example, the SERENA/PICAM ion particle detector on MPO clearly measured a peak in hydrogen ion density during the closest approach. SERENA is the Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances instrument suite and PICAM is the Planetary Ion Camera.
With the close encounter, MPO’s MErcury Radiometer and Thermal infrared Imaging Spectrometer (MERTIS) could capture spectra of the Venus atmosphere while the planet completely filled its field of view. Such high resolution spectra of Venus have not been obtained since the Venera 15 mission in the early 1980s. A first look at the MERTIS data shows the expected band of carbon dioxide and hints of more spectral features. The detailed analysis revealing the thermal structure in the atmosphere and potentially sulphur dioxide abundance will take many weeks. Apart from the scientific value of this data, it will also help to verify the instrument calibration in preparation for the first thermal infrared observations of Mercury by a spacecraft.
Venus photobomb
It was not possible to take high-resolution imagery of Venus with the science cameras onboard either mission, but both could use other instruments to capture black-and-white imagery.
Solar Orbiter’s SoloHI imager observed the nightside of Venus in the days before closest approach. SoloHI usually takes images of the solar wind – the stream of charged particles constantly released from the Sun – by capturing the light scattered by electrons in the wind. In the days leading up to the Venus flyby, the telescope caught the dramatic glare of the planet’s dayside. The footage shows Venus moving across the field of view from the left, while the Sun is off camera to the upper right. The planet's nightside, the part hidden from the Sun, appears as a dark semicircle surrounded by a bright crescent of light.
BepiColombo’s three monitoring cameras captured a series of black-and-white snapshots, starting from the approach over the nightside, through closest approach and in the days after as the planet faded from view. The full set of images from the flyby is available in the Planetary Science Archive.
Where to next?
Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo both have one more flyby this year.
During the night of 1-2 October BepiColombo will see its destination for the first time, making its first of six flybys of Mercury at a distance of just 200 km distance. The two planetary orbiters will be delivered into Mercury orbit in late 2025, tasked with studying all aspects of this mysterious inner planet from its core to surface processes, magnetic field, and exosphere, to better understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star.
On 27 November, Solar Orbiter will make a final flyby of Earth at 460 km, kicking off the start of its main mission. It will continue to make regular flybys of Venus to progressively increase its orbit inclination to best observe the Sun’s uncharted polar regions, which is key to understanding the Sun’s 11 year activity cycle.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Sights_and_sounds_of_a_Venus_flyby
https://youtu.be/DpjQSI9bEjs
Post by: Rondaz on 08/14/2021 02:53 pm
https://youtu.be/RQFZEjQJcvE
Post by: jacqmans on 08/24/2021 12:34 pm
The images show Venus approaching from the left while the Sun is off camera to the upper right. The planet's nightside, the part hidden from the Sun, appears as a dark semicircle surrounded by a bright crescent of light – glare from Venus’ incredibly bright sunlit side.
Some bright stars are also visible in the sequence.
https://youtu.be/DpjQSI9bEjs
Post by: eeergo on 11/18/2021 09:11 am
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1461273891377238019
Post by: bolun on 11/29/2021 08:37 am
Quote
Our #Estrack station in Australia has picked up the signal from #SolarOrbiter!
The spacecraft has safely performed its only #Earthflyby, passing through our human-made debris-filled environment.
Post by: bolun on 12/18/2021 01:18 pm
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_publishes_a_wealth_of_science_results_from_its_cruise_phase
Post by: bolun on 12/22/2021 06:15 pm
Frame from a movie captured by the SoloHI instrument on the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft of Comet Leonard on 17-18 December 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXqFjiirfzE&feature=youtu.be
Related article: A Christmas comet for Solar Orbiter (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/A_Christmas_comet_for_Solar_Orbiter)
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2021/12/Comet_Leonard_by_SoloHI
Image credit: ESA/NASA/NRL/SoloHI
Post by: Rondaz on 12/23/2021 09:48 am
10:25 Dec 23. 2021
The European probe Solar Orbiter, which explores the Sun, captured the motion of comet Leonard against the background of stars and planets. The comet is expected to pass perihelion in early January, after which it will permanently leave the solar system, according to the ESA website.
Long-period comet C / 2021 A1 (Leonard) was discovered in early January this year using the Catalina Sky Survey telescope . On December 12, it approached the Earth, and on January 3, 2022, it will pass the perihelion point of its current orbit, being 90 million kilometers from the Sun, which is slightly more than half the distance from the Earth to the Sun. If the core does not disintegrate, then in the future the comet will be thrown out of the solar system into interstellar space.
Comet Leonard is currently available for observation with telescopes and binoculars, its brightness is estimated at +4.7 magnitude, and it is located in the constellation Microscope. In December, the comet experienced several flares, which are associated with an increase in the activity of the nucleus.
On December 17-19, 2021, Leonard's comet came into the field of view of the SoloHI instrument installed on board the Solar Orbiter probe, which is engaged in solar research. Mercury, Venus (brighter than Mercury and moving from left to right) and part of the Milky Way are visible in the upper right of the frame, and stars and dust clouds in the constellation Southern Corona in the lower left corner of the frame. The change in the length of the comet's tail occurs due to a change in the viewing angle. Also at the very end of the video, you can see a faint coronal mass ejection front moving from the right side of the frame.
In addition to the Solar Orbiter, Leonard's comet was also filmed by another apparatus engaged in studying the Sun - the HI-2 telescope installed on board STEREO-A, which conducted observations in early November this year.
Earlier, we talked about how the Parker solar probe saw the degeneration of the comet and examined the three tails of the comet NEOWISE.
Alexander Voytyuk
https://nplus1.ru/news/2021/12/23/solar-orbiter-comet
https://youtu.be/NXqFjiirfzE
Post by: bolun on 01/25/2022 02:53 pm
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft flew through the tail of Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard in December 2021, collecting images and in-situ solar wind and particle data. At the same time, SOHO (ESA/NASA), Parker Solar Probe (NASA) and STEREO-A (NASA) were also watching the comet’s evolution from other angles.
The graphic shows the approximate relative positions of the planets, comet and spacecraft on 17 December 2021 and is not to scale. Very approximate fields of view are indicated for selected instruments: SoloHI on Solar Orbiter and SECCHI on STEREO-A.
- Related article: Solar Orbiter catches a second comet by the tail (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_catches_a_second_comet_by_the_tail)
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/01/Watching_Comet_Leonard_from_all_angles
Image credit: G. Jones & S. Grant (UCL)
Post by: bolun on 03/08/2022 01:24 pm
Quote
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft is speeding towards its historic first close pass of the Sun. On 14 March, the spacecraft will pass the orbit of Mercury, the scorched inner planet of our Solar System, and on 26 March it will reach closest approach to the Sun.
Today, Solar Orbiter is crossing directly between the Earth and the Sun, about halfway between our planet and its parent star, and this allows for a unique study of space weather and the Sun-Earth connection.
Quote
On 26 March, Solar Orbiter will be less than one-third of the distance from the Sun to the Earth, and it is designed to survive this close for relatively extended periods of time. It will spend from 14 March to 6 April inside the orbit of Mercury. Around perihelion, the name for closest approach to the Sun, Solar Orbiter will bring high resolution telescopes closer than ever before to the Sun.
Together with data and images from Solar Orbiter’s other instruments, these could reveal more information about the miniature flares dubbed campfires that the mission revealed in its first images.
Quote
The 26 March perihelion passage is one of the major events in the mission. All ten instruments will be operating simultaneously to gather as much data as possible.
Post by: Rondaz on 03/14/2022 01:30 pm
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1503330787969712128
Post by: Rondaz on 03/21/2022 08:55 am
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1505827476957716482
Post by: bolun on 03/26/2022 02:25 pm
The Sun as seen by Solar Orbiter in extreme ultraviolet light from a distance of roughly 75 million kilometres. The image is a mosaic of 25 individual images taken on 7 March by the high resolution telescope of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument. Taken at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, this image reveals the Sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona, which has a temperature of around a million degrees Celsius. In total, the final image contains more than 83 million pixels in a 9148 x 9112 pixel grid, making it the highest resolution image of the Sun’s full disc and outer atmosphere, the corona, ever taken.
An image of Earth is also included for scale, at the 2 o’clock position.
Related article: Zooming into the Sun with Solar Orbiter (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Zooming_into_the_Sun_with_Solar_Orbiter)
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/03/The_Sun_in_high_resolution
Image credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI team; Data processing: E. Kraaikamp (ROB)
Post by: bolun on 03/26/2022 02:27 pm
Quote
Happy perihelion day! Today we're flying by the #Sun at about 48 million km, in one of many close perihelion passes throughout our mission. Here's a taste of what's to come 👉https://esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Zooming_into_the_Sun_with_Solar_Orbiter #WeAreAllSolarOrbiters
Post by: bolun on 03/27/2022 06:45 pm
Quote
Happy SUNday! ☀️ #SolarOrbiter passed through a close solar perihelion yesterday, but there is so much more to come over the next years as we eventually get those much awaited views of the Sun's poles. Here's how we'll do it👉
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/How_to_get_the_best_view_of_the_Sun
Post by: Frasco on 08/30/2022 08:46 am
Solar Orbiter will make his 3rd gravity assist fly-by into Venus this weekend. It will serve also as its 1st change in the orbit in respect to the Sun
https://twitter.com/ESASolarOrbiter/status/1564184488636203009
Post by: bolun on 09/05/2022 07:10 pm
Quote
On 30 Aug, a large coronal mass ejection shot from the Sun in the direction of Venus. Not long later, the storm arrived at the second planet from the Sun. As the data continues to come in from Solar Orbiter, this strike reveals why ‘in situ’ monitoring of space weather and its effects on the bodies, and spacecraft, of the Solar System are so important.
Fortunately, there were no negative effects on the spacecraft as the ESA-NASA solar observatory is designed to withstand and in fact measure violent outbursts from our star – although Venus doesn’t always get off so lightly. Coronal mass ejections have a tendency of eroding Venus’ atmosphere, stripping off gasses as they whoosh by.
Post by: Rondaz on 09/06/2022 09:45 am
It's no easy job being a #SolarOrbiter..
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1567037379961008128
Post by: Rondaz on 09/12/2022 10:19 am
https://twitter.com/esa/status/1569263228412170241
Post by: bolun on 09/13/2022 09:36 pm
Solar Orbiter has made the first ever remote sensing observation of a magnetic phenomenon called a solar ‘switchback’, proving their origin in the solar surface and pointing to a mechanism that might help accelerate the solar wind.
The central image shows the Sun as seen by the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument on 25 March 2022. An active region on the Sun is indicated, which is thought to be the source of the observed ‘switchback’ identified in the solar corona by the Metis instrument.
An analysis of the outflow velocity in the corona shows that the switchback corresponds to very slow-moving plasma (image at right). This links it to the active region as such slow speeds would be expected above an active region that has yet to release its stored energy.
The magnetic field line sketches show the chain of events that are thought to be taking place in the magnetic field lines to generate the switchback. Active regions on the Sun can feature open and closed magnetic field lines. The closed lines arch up into the solar atmosphere before curving round back into the Sun. The open field lines connect with the interplanetary magnetic field of the Solar System. When an open magnetic region interacts with a closed region, the magnetic field lines can reconnect, creating an approximately S-shape field line and producing a burst of energy. As the field line responds to the reconnection and the release of energy, a kink is set propagating outwards. This is the switchback. A similar switchback is also sent in the opposite direction, down the field line and into the Sun.
This is the first ever remote sensing observation of a switchback, and may provide a mechanism that might help accelerate the solar wind.
Related article: Solar Orbiter solves magnetic switchback mystery (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_solves_magnetic_switchback_mystery)
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/08/How_a_solar_switchback_is_formed
Image credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI & Metis Teams and D. Telloni et al. (2022); Zank et al. (2020)
Post by: bolun on 10/11/2022 07:27 pm
Quote
#SolarOrbiter is heading for the next close approach of the #Sun this week at approx 0.29 AU at 19:12 UTC (21:12 CEST) on Weds 12 Oct 😎
#WeAreAllSolarOrbiters #StayTuned #ExploreFarther
https://esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_perihelia_and_flybys
Post by: bolun on 10/31/2022 04:20 pm
Quote
#SolarOrbiter's second close encounter with the Sun is delivering stunning data of our home star
This movie comes from 13 Oct when @esasolarorbiter’s @EuiTelescope returned the highest resolution movie of the quiet corona ever taken
📹 https://esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2022/10/Solar_Orbiter_s_unprecedented_view_of_the_quiet_corona #ExploreFarther
Post by: bolun on 08/24/2023 07:47 pm
Quote
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered a multitude of tiny jets of material escaping from the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Each jet lasts between 20 and 100 seconds, and expels plasma at around 100 km/s. These jets could be the long-sought-after source of the solar wind.
Quote
The data comes from Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument. Images of the Sun’s south pole taken by EUI on 30 March 2022 reveal a population of faint, short-lived features that are associated with small jets of plasma being ejected from the Sun’s atmosphere.
Image credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team
Post by: FutureSpaceTourist on 09/06/2023 12:20 pm
Quote
📷🔧A last minute camera ‘hack’ on #SolarOrbiter’s @EuiTelescope has enabled a new mode of operation to record part of the Sun’s atmosphere at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths that has been almost impossible to image until now 🔗
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Camera_hack_lets_Solar_Orbiter_peer_deeper_into_Sun_s_atmosphere
twitter.com/esasolarorbiter/status/1699395329353720094
Quote
Before launch, a small ‘thumb’ was added to the door of the instrument. As the door slides open to let light into the camera, if it is stopped halfway, the thumb covers the Sun’s bright disc & EUI can detect the million-times fainter ultraviolet light from the surrounding corona
https://twitter.com/esasolarorbiter/status/1699395450069983319
Quote
Tests with the EUI “occulter mode” have been on-going since 2021 and the team are confident in its successful operation. A recent paper in @AandA_journal explains the details
👉https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2023/06/aa46039-23/aa46039-23.html
twitter.com/esasolarorbiter/status/1699395770510684530
Quote
🎥 The movie shows an ultraviolet image of the Sun’s corona taken using the EUI occulter. An ultraviolet image of the Sun’s disc taken by @NASASun STEREO at the same time has been superimposed in the middle. Details👉 https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2023/09/A_new_way_to_view_the_Sun
https://twitter.com/esasolarorbiter/status/1699396014304596068
Quote
This mode of operation will almost certainly influence new solar instruments for future missions. Instead of needing a coronagraph AND a camera, these promising results suggest the two could be combined! 🤝 #WeAreAllSolarOrbiters
Post by: jacqmans on 03/28/2024 08:52 am
28/03/2024
In the run up to April’s total solar eclipse, ESA-led Solar Orbiter and NASA-led Parker Solar Probe are both at their closest approach to the Sun. They are taking the opportunity to join hands in studying the driving rain of plasma that streams from the Sun, fills the Solar System, and causes dazzlement and destruction at Earth.
Both Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe have very eccentric orbits, meaning that they fly in near to the Sun to get a close-up look, and then fly far out to give their onboard tech a chance to recover from the intense heat and radiation. During the next week, for the first time ever, the two spacecraft will both be at their closest approach to the Sun – what we call the ‘perihelion’ – at the same time.
What’s more, this closest approach coincides with Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe being at right angles to each other as they look towards the Sun.
Daniel Müller, ESA Solar Orbiter Project Scientist, explains why this positioning is special. “On this day, we have a unique spacecraft configuration, where Solar Orbiter will have its full suite of instruments pointed towards the region on the Sun where the solar wind is produced that will hit Parker Solar Probe a few hours later.”
More:
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Tomorrow_ESA_and_NASA_team_up_to_study_solar_wind