NASA launches two new missions to the sun: $280MILLION project will study extreme space weather and could help protect Earth from the violent solar flares
- Missions will evaluate solar winds and the Earth’s response to them
- The sun generates a vast outpouring of solar particles known as the solar wind
- This can create a dynamic system of radiation in space called space weather
- Near Earth, this can lead to profound impacts on astronauts’ safety, radio communications, GPS signals, and utility grids on the ground
NASA has selected two missions to help scientists understand how the sun creates solar winds and how they drive extreme space weather.
One of the selected missions will study how the sun releases charged particles from its upper atmosphere, called the corona, into the solar system.
The former, named PUNCH, will study Earth’s response and will consist of four suitcase-shaped satellites that will track solar wind as it leaves the sun.
TRACERS, the latter, will use two spacecraft to study how the charged particles in these solar winds interact with the Earth.
The main aim of the $280 million programme is to see how the mysterious phenomena can lead to profound impacts on the Earth’s magnetic field, astronauts’ safety, radio communications, GPS signals, and utility grids on the ground.
NASA has selected two new missions to advance our understanding of the sun and its dynamic effects on space. One of the selected missions will study how the sun drives particles and energy into the solar system and a second will study Earth’s response
The Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, mission will focus directly on the sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona.
The second mission is Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS.
This will observe particles and fields at the Earth’s northern magnetic cusp region – which encircles Earth’s pole, where our planet’s magnetic field lines curve down toward Earth.
The sun generates a vast outpouring of solar particles known as solar winds, which can create a dynamic system of radiation in space called space weather.
Solar winds are no threat to people on Earth, but can pose a potentially fatal danger to astronauts and spacecraft.
Solar storms have sparked fascinations among scientists after the Carrington Event of 1859 which saw a huge solar coronal mass ejection unleashed at Earth’s protective magnetosphere.
Not only did intense auroras light up the skies, but it caused all telegraph sysrtems across Europe and North America to go down, giving electric shocks to operators and even starting fires.
Some scientists believe that a repeat of such an event today would knock out the electric grid indefinitely but also disturb satellites and ground-based technology.
PUNCH, will consist of four suitcase-shaped satellites that will track solar wind as it leaves the sun. TRACERS will use two spacecraft to study how the charged particles in these solar winds at the interact with the Earth.
NASA and the ESA teamed up earlier this month to create a weather forecast system for solar winds because the more we understand what drives space weather and its interaction with the Earth and lunar systems, the more we can mitigate its effects, according to NASA.
This includes safeguarding astronauts and technology crucial to NASA’s Artemis program to the Moon.
‘We carefully selected these two missions not only because of the high-class science they can do in their own right.
‘Because they will work well together with the other heliophysics spacecraft advancing NASA’s mission to protect astronauts, space technology and life down here on Earth,’ said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
‘These missions will do big science, but they’re also special because they come in small packages, which means that we can launch them together and get more research for the price of a single launch.’
The planned launch date for both PUNCH and TRACERS is no later than August 2022.