China and Europe, in a rare partnership, are launching a joint space mission aimed at observing space weather and studying the role of Earth’s magnetic field in protecting the planet from dangerous solar radiation.
As part of this historic collaboration, a Vega-C rocket will launch the 2.3-ton satellite Smile on Thursday, which will launch into a highly elliptical orbit from the European spaceport.
The satellite will be launched to an altitude of 121,000 km above the North Pole. The project aims to understand how solar activities generate space weather and to analyze geomagnetic storms, which are responsible for disrupting Earth-based communications networks.
The mission dates back to 2016, when the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed to launch this mission. However, it was postponed by a year due to logistical hurdles resulting from restrictions on exports of sensitive technology, technical issues and safety regulations.
The logistical challenges ranged from high-level trade restrictions to detailed security concerns; For example, the ingestion of ammonia into the spacecraft’s heat pipes led to “dangerous goods” classifications, further complicating the transit.
Smile: an important addition to space missions
Smile is equipped with four scientific instruments, including a soft X-ray camera, which is responsible for mapping the boundaries of the magnetosphere for the first time.
Moreover, Smile’s UV camera can also assess the Northern Lights aurora over the North Pole for 45 hours without any break.
Colin Forsyth, a space scientist at University College London who is working on Smile, said: “We will be able to see how our magnetic bubble changes shape, whether this happens smoothly or in steps, and how it compresses as bursts from the Sun pass by Earth. We have never done anything like this before.”
The satellite will also help researchers predict geomagnetic storms faster and more accurately.
