![]() ![]() In the meantime, the Solar Orbiter (combined with data from NASA's Parker Probe) will prove a boon to Sun-studying boffins on Earth, including those pondering the impact of those pesky particles on potential missions to the Moon or beyond.įuture missions, including the Lagrange mission, which would see spacecraft positioned at the L1 and L5 Lagrangian, will further help scientists better understand and predict solar events, such as coronal mass ejections. Ultimately, for SolO, it may end up being the beancounters who decide when to call time on the project. Such has been its ability to repeatedly recover from what should have been mission-shortening scenarios that crashing it into Phobos to avoid contaminating Mars "might just end up punching a Mars Express-shaped hole through the Moon", joked one staffer. Some at ESA are a little concerned about what to do with the long-lived Mars orbiter when the end finally comes. Such is the creativity employed by boffins on the ground that other missions, such as Mars Express, have endured long past their expected expiry date. Issues on the spacecraft itself will likely be dealt with by ESA's engineers, who have kept the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission alive and well into the third decade of its planned two-year mission. However, the solar panels, derived from the BepiColumbo Mercury Planetary orbiter, might degrade over time as the probe flies through the harsh environment near the Sun. ESA's head of mission operations, Paolo Ferri, told us the hope was that an extension might be given to allow a full 22 orbits of operations, until 2030.Īs for what could kill off the mission? Fuel could present a problem although senior science advisor Mark McCaughrean pointed out that ESA's XMM-Newton mission, launched back in 1999, had fuel to last into the 2030s thanks to careful management. The nominal mission will end around December 2026, and naturally the ESA gang hopes the money taps will stay on should things still be healthy. ![]() ![]() Instrument commissioning is expected to take a while. Launch failed a little over 10 seconds after liftoff due to a loss of power that shut down the first stage engines. Vigoride-5 carries Caltechs Space Solar Power Project (SSPD-1) as a hosted payload. Although the spacecraft is now in space, the mission won't get under way "proper" until November 2021 as it swings past the Earth once more following gravity assists from Venus on 26 December 2020 and 8 August 2021. Orbiter SN1: Launcher: Low Earth Space tug: In orbit: Spacecraft failure Vigoride-5 (VR-5). Verscharen himself began working on the theory behind the mission in 2009 and told us he hoped to see the thing out. The fairing of the US Atlas V 411 rocket with ESAs Solar Orbiter spacecraft inside at the Astrotech payload processing facility near Kennedy Space Center in Florida during launch preparations on 21 January 2020. What is the collective noun for a crowd of very happy scientists, engineers and ESA staffers? (pic: Richard Speed) ![]()
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