NASASpaceFlight.com Forum
Robotic Spacecraft (Astronomy, Planetary, Earth, Solar/Heliophysics) => Space Science Coverage => Topic started by: jebbo on 03/20/2018 02:07 pm
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Couldn't find an appropriate thread on this. Anyway, it was selected today:
ESA’s next science mission to focus on nature of exoplanets: ARIEL – the Atmospheric Remote‐sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large‐survey mission – selected today as ESA’s fourth medium-class science mission, to be launched mid 2028. Full story: http://ow.ly/zQ6N30j3lpF
https://twitter.com/esascience/status/976108657019707392 (https://twitter.com/esascience/status/976108657019707392)
Article here (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ESA_s_next_science_mission_to_focus_on_nature_of_exoplanets)
--- Tony
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BBC News article (concentrating on UK's role):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43477352 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43477352)
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Nice! The more exoplanet hunters, the better I think! ;D
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It's not really a planet hunter but is designed as an atmosphere survey: basically characterise the atmosphere of ~1000 exoplanets!
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Nice! The more exoplanet hunters, the better I think! ;D
Not a planet hunter, but it will study the formation and composition of close-in super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, and this information will help us to constrain how habitable planets form.
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http://sci.esa.int/cosmic-vision/59109-ariel-assessment-study-report-yellow-book/
Yellow book
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Ariel moves from blueprint to reality (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Ariel_moves_from_blueprint_to_reality)
ESA’s exoplanet mission Ariel, scheduled for launch in 2029, has moved from study to implementation phase, following which an industrial contractor will be selected to build the spacecraft.
Ariel, the Atmospheric remote-sensing infrared exoplanet large-survey mission, addresses one of the key themes of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme: What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life? Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of around 1000 planetary atmospheres simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths.
It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of exoplanets, linking them to the host star’s environment. This will fill a significant gap in our knowledge of how the planet’s chemistry is linked to the environment where it formed, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s evolution.
Observations of these worlds will give insights into the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation, and their subsequent evolution, in the process also helping us to understand how our own Solar System fits into the bigger picture of the overall cosmos.
Ariel is planned for launch on ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. It will operate from an orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, L2, 1.5 million kilometres directly ‘behind’ Earth as viewed from the Sun, on an initial four-year mission. The ESA-led Comet Interceptor mission will share the ride into space.
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The European Space Agency formally adopts Ariel, the exoplanet explorer
RESEARCH
The European Space Agency (ESA) have formally adopted Ariel, the first mission dedicated to study the nature, formation and evolution of exoplanets.
More than 50 institutes from 17 countries, including the University of Oxford, have been working over the past five years to develop the science goals and design the instrumentation which will enable Ariel to survey a diverse sample of around 1000 planets outside our own solar system.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-12-european-space-agency-formally-adopts-ariel-exoplanet-explorer (https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-12-european-space-agency-formally-adopts-ariel-exoplanet-explorer)
Ariel has passed major feasibility reviews and has been formally adopted into the program of future missions for implementation. It will survey about 1000 planets outside our solar system during its lifetime and will unveil the nature, formation and evolution of a large and assorted sample of planets around different types of stars in our galaxy.
Ariel will be the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and atmospheric thermal properties of hundreds of transiting exoplanets.
The mission has passed a rigorous set of reviews which it has been undergoing throughout 2020 to prove the technical feasibility and science case and has now received approval from ESA’s member states, confirming that the team can work towards a launch in 2029.
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https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2021/12/Ariel_artist_impression
Artist impression of ESA's Ariel exoplanet satellite.
Image credit: Airbus
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Airbus will build ESA’s Ariel exoplanet satellite (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Airbus_will_build_ESA_s_Ariel_exoplanet_satellite)
ESA and Airbus have signed a contract to move forward with the design and construction of the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, Ariel, planned for launch in 2029.
Ariel is the third in a trio of dedicated exoplanet missions conceived by ESA focusing on various aspects of this rapidly evolving subject area. It will follow Cheops, which launched in 2019, and Plato, scheduled for launch in 2026.
Image credit: ESA
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Exoplanet surveyor Ariel passes major milestone (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Exoplanet_surveyor_Ariel_passes_major_milestone)
Ariel, ESA’s next-generation mission to observe the chemical makeup of distant exoplanets, has passed a major milestone after successfully completing its payload Preliminary Design Review (PDR).
The successful completion of the payload PDR marks a crucial step forward for Ariel, demonstrating that the mission's payload design meets all the required technical and scientific specifications, and no holdups were found for the foreseen launch in 2029.
The Ariel payload will consist of an integrated suite comprising the telescope, the Ariel infrared spectrometer (AIRS), and the Fine Guidance System (FGS) module, along with the necessary supporting hardware and services.