Photo: NASA
The UK is determined to become a “science and technology superpower,” and the recent National Space Strategy plays an important role in that. Besides getting ready to launch rockets from British land for the first time, the UK is also gearing up to launch a space mission with NASA.
Before expanding human exploration on the moon and Mars, we need to learn more about the sun. The edge of the heliosphere (the space that surrounds the sun), known as the “magnetic bubble,” ensures protection against strong radiation and could have contributed greatly to the existence of living beings in the solar system.
NASA wants to study the “solar wind” – the charged particles inside this bubble, which will be essential for future exploration on other planets, and will also help with forecasting potentially harming weather events, such as solar flares. In order to do that, it has created Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), the newest mission in NASA’s program for solar study.
Through this new collaboration between NASA and the UK Space Agency, Imperial College London will be in charge of designing and building a magnetometer, one of the ten instruments deployed by IMAP. The British institution will also provide personnel and ground support for the instrument.
The spacecraft itself is being built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which will also operate the mission for NASA. IMAP will be led by David McComas of Princeton University, together with a large team of 24 international institutions.
The IMAP spacecraft, equipped with the British-made magnetometer and other cutting-edge instruments, will travel one million miles away from Earth. When it reaches “the magnetic bubble,” its role will be to monitor and measure how the solar wind interacts with the space that surrounds it.
The U.S.-led IMAP mission is set to launch in 2025.
NASA wants to study the “solar wind” – the charged particles inside this bubble, which will be essential for future exploration on other planets, and will also help with forecasting potentially harming weather events, such as solar flares. In order to do that, it has created Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), the newest mission in NASA’s program for solar study.
Through this new collaboration between NASA and the UK Space Agency, Imperial College London will be in charge of designing and building a magnetometer, one of the ten instruments deployed by IMAP. The British institution will also provide personnel and ground support for the instrument.
The spacecraft itself is being built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which will also operate the mission for NASA. IMAP will be led by David McComas of Princeton University, together with a large team of 24 international institutions.
The IMAP spacecraft, equipped with the British-made magnetometer and other cutting-edge instruments, will travel one million miles away from Earth. When it reaches “the magnetic bubble,” its role will be to monitor and measure how the solar wind interacts with the space that surrounds it.
The U.S.-led IMAP mission is set to launch in 2025.
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