The L5 mission for space weather forecasting

We have studied a number of interplanetary space mission scenarios for space weather research and operational forecasting experiments and concluded that a spacecraft should be deployed at the L5 point of the Sun–Earth system to enable remote sensing of the Sun and interplanetary space and in situ measurements of solar wind plasma and high energy solar particle events. The L5 point is an appropriate position for making side-view observations of geo-effective coronal mass ejections and interplanetary plasma clouds.Here, we describe briefly the mission plan and the ongoing BBM development of important subsystems such as the wide field coronal imager (WCI) and the mission processor. The WCI will have a large CCD array with 16-bit sampling, to achieve a dynamic range of several thousand in order to detect very small deviations due to plasma clouds under zodiacal light contaminations a hundred times brighter than the clouds. The L5 mission we propose will surely contribute to the construction of an international space weather observation network.     

Solar ring mission: Building a panorama of the Sun and inner-heliosphere

Solar Ring (SOR) is a proposed space science mission to monitor and study the Sun and inner heliosphere from a full 360° perspective in the ecliptic plane. It will deploy-three 120°-separated spacecraft on the 1-AU orbit. The first spacecraft, S1, locates 30° upstream of the Earth, the second, S2, 90° downstream, and the third, S3, completes the configuration. This design with necessary science instruments, e.g., the Doppler-velocity and vector magnetic field imager, wide-angle coronagraph, and in-situ instruments, will allow us to establish many unprecedented capabilities: (1) provide simultaneous Doppler-velocity observations of the whole solar surface to understand the deep interior, (2) provide vector magnetograms of the whole photosphere — the inner boundary of the solar atmosphere and heliosphere, (3) provide the information of the whole lifetime evolution of solar featured structures, and (4) provide the whole view of solar transients and space weather in the inner heliosphere. With these capabilities, Solar Ring mission aims to address outstanding questions about the origin of solar cycle, the origin of solar eruptions and the origin of extreme space weather events. The successful accomplishment of the mission will construct a panorama of the Sun and inner-heliosphere, and therefore advance our understanding of the star and the space environment that holds our life.     

Giotto extended mission

The navigation of the ESA spacecraft Giotto to its encounter with comet P/Halley on 14 March 1986 required just 10% of the fuel available. Although the spacecraft was damaged by dust impacts during its close flyby at the nucleus of P/Halley it was retargeted to return close to Earth to maintain the option to extend the mission to encounter another comet, P/Grigg-Skjellerup on 10 July 1992.

On 2 April 1986 the spacecraft was put into hibernation configuration and had been orbiting the Sun in the ecliptic with an orbital period of 10 months. On 19 February 1990 it was reactivated, spacecraft subsystems and the payload checked out to determine its health status.

On 2 July 1990 Giotto performed succesfully the first-ever Earth gravity assist manoeuvre of a spacecraft approaching the Earth from deep space and was retargeted for comet P/Grigg--Skjellerup. It was concluded that the spacecraft is ready to provide valuable data during a potential encounter with a second comet.     

“嫦娥二号”卫星拓展试验轨道计算中心天体的选取

飞行器的星历积分不可避免涉及中心天体的选取问题。“嫦娥二号”卫星在拓展试验期间处于弱引力区,文章针对拓展试验期间的轨道状态,从受摄运动二体问题角度分析得出适宜选取太阳作为中心天体。进而结合真实力模型情况,使用行星星历表计算行星产生的摄动力,从理论上推导得出在忽略小天体摄动的前提下,由于摄动天体同时对中心天体和飞行器产生摄动作用,以地球为中心天体产生的摄动力类似于潮汐力,而以太阳为中心天体则不然,因而更适宜选取地球作为中心天体计算轨道运动问题     

MIRAX: a Brazilian X-ray astronomy satellite mission

We describe the “Monitor e Imageador de Raios-X” (MIRAX), an X-ray astronomy satellite mission proposed by the high-energy astrophysics group at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil to the Brazilian Space Agency. MIRAX is an international collaboration that includes, besides INPE, the University of California San Diego, the University of Tübingen in Germany, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Space Research Organization Netherlands. The payload of MIRAX will consist of two identical hard X-ray cameras (10–200 keV) and one soft X-ray camera (2–28 keV), both with angular resolution of 5–7^′. The basic objective of MIRAX is to carry out continuous broadband imaging spectroscopy observations of a large source sample (9 months/yr) in the central Galactic plane region. This will allow the detection, localization, possible identification, and spectral/temporal study of the entire history of transient phenomena to be carried out in one single mission. MIRAX will have sensitivities of 5 mCrab/day in the 2–10 keV band (2 times better than the All Sky Monitor on Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer) and 2.6 mCrab/day in the 10–100 keV band (40 times better than the Earth Occultation technique of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory). The MIRAX spacecraft will weigh about 200 kg and is expected to be launched in a low-altitude (600 km) circular equatorial orbit around 2007/2008.     

The Giotto mission to Halley''s comet

ESA's Giotto mission to Halley's comet is a fast flyby in March 1986, about four weeks after the comet's perihelion passage when it is most active. The scientific payload comprises 10 experiments with a total mass of about 60 kg: a camera for imaging the comet nucleus, three mass spectrometers for analysis of the elemental and isotopic composition of the cometary gas and dust environment, various dust impact detectors, a photopolarimeter for measurements of the coma brightness, and a set of plasma instruments for studies of the solar wind/comet interaction. In view of the high flyby velocity of 68 km/s the experiment active time is very short (only 4 hours) and all data are transmitted back to Earth in real time at a rate of 40 kbps. The Giotto spacecraft is spin-stabilised with a despun high gain parabolic dish antenna inclined at 44.3° to point at the Earth during the encounter while a specially designed dual-sheet bumper shield at the other end protects the spacecraft from being destroyed by hypervelocity dust impacts. The mission will probably end near the point of closest approach to the nucleus when the spacecraft attitude will be severely perturbed by impacting dust particles leading to a loss of the telecommunications link.     

Science objectives of the magnetic field experiment onboard Aditya-L1 spacecraft

The Aditya-L1 is first Indian solar mission scheduled to be placed in a halo orbit around the first Lagrangian point (L1) of Sun-Earth system in the year 2018–19. The approved scientific payloads onboard Aditya-L1 spacecraft includes a Fluxgate Digital Magnetometer (FGM) to measure the local magnetic field which is necessary to supplement the outcome of other scientific experiments onboard. The in-situ vector magnetic field data at L1 is essential for better understanding of the data provided by the particle and plasma analysis experiments, onboard Aditya-L1 mission. Also, the dynamics of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can be better understood with the help of in-situ magnetic field data at the L1 point region. This data will also serve as crucial input for the short lead-time space weather forecasting models.The proposed FGM is a dual range magnetic sensor on a 6?m long boom mounted on the Sun viewing panel deck and configured to deploy along the negative roll direction of the spacecraft. Two sets of sensors (tri-axial each) are proposed to be mounted, one at the tip of boom (6?m from the spacecraft) and other, midway (3?m from the spacecraft). The main science objective of this experiment is to measure the magnitude and nature of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) locally and to study the disturbed magnetic conditions and extreme solar events by detecting the CME from Sun as a transient event. The proposed secondary science objectives are to study the impact of interplanetary structures and shock solar wind interaction on geo-space environment and to detect low frequency plasma waves emanating from the solar corona at L1 point. This will provide a better understanding on how the Sun affects interplanetary space.In this paper, we shall give the main scientific objectives of the magnetic field experiment and brief technical details of the FGM onboard Aditya-1 spacecraft.     

从日地系统L2出发借力月球飞越近地小行星

对于停留在日地系统L2的“嫦娥2号”探测器,其后续飞行方案有多个选项,例如主动撞月或重返月球轨道、返回地球轨道或再入大气、飞往地月系统L1/L2或日地系统L1、进入深空飞越近地小行星(最终,“嫦娥2号”于2012年12月13日成功地实现了对Toutatis小行星的近距离飞越)。探讨上述的飞行方案需要对飞行轨道进行初步设计,总的速度脉冲限制在100 m/s以内并且需要考虑探测器同时受到太阳、地球、月球的引力作用。本研究设计了探测器从日地系统L2出发借力月球实现Toutatis小行星飞越的飞行方案,与直接飞越方案相比,借力月球可以进一步节省探测器的燃料消耗,其等效速度脉冲设计值为58.47 m/s。     

Multiobjective genetic optimization of Earth–Moon trajectories in the restricted four-body problem

In this paper, optimal trajectories of a spacecraft traveling from Earth to Moon using impulsive maneuvers (ΔV maneuvers) are investigated. The total flight time and the summation of impulsive maneuvers ΔV are the objective functions to be minimized. The main celestial bodies influencing the motion of the spacecraft in this journey are Sun, Earth and Moon. Therefore, a three-dimensional restricted four-body problem (R4BP) model is utilized to represent the motion of the spacecraft in the gravitational field of these celestial bodies. The total ΔV of the maneuvers is minimized by eliminating the ΔV required for capturing the spacecraft by Moon. In this regard, only a mid-course impulsive maneuver is utilized for Moon ballistic capture. To achieve such trajectories, the optimization problem is parameterized with respect to the orbital elements of the ballistic capture orbits around Moon, the arrival date and a mid-course maneuver time. The equations of motion are solved backward in time with three impulsive maneuvers up to a specified low Earth parking orbit. The results show high potential and capability of this type of parameterization in finding several Pareto-optimal trajectories. Using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm with crowding distance sorting (NSGA-II) for the resulting multiobjective optimization problem, several trajectories are discovered. The resulting trajectories of the presented scheme permit alternative trade-off studies by designers incorporating higher level information and mission priorities.     

CubeSail: A low cost CubeSat based solar sail demonstration mission

CubeSail is a nano-solar sail mission based on the 3U CubeSat standard, which is currently being designed and built at the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey. CubeSail will have a total mass of around 3 kg and will deploy a 5 × 5 m sail in low Earth orbit. The primary aim of the mission is to demonstrate the concept of solar sailing and end-of-life de-orbiting using the sail membrane as a drag-sail. The spacecraft will have a compact 3-axis stabilised attitude control system, which uses three magnetic torquers aligned with the spacecraft principle axis as well as a novel two-dimensional translation stage separating the spacecraft bus from the sail. CubeSail’s deployment mechanism consists of four novel booms and four-quadrant sail membranes. The proposed booms are made from tape-spring blades and will deploy the sail membrane from a 2U CubeSat standard structure. This paper presents a systems level overview of the CubeSat mission, focusing on the mission orbit and de-orbiting, in addition to the deployment, attitude control and the satellite bus.     

Accurate determination of the successive moments of the sun: a new window open on the sun''s interior

Despite its great importance for solar physics, mainly in the fields of solar fundamental astrometry, helioseismology, planetary motions and relativistic effects, the successive zonal harmonics of the Sun still remain elusive and subject to some controversy. Direct observations from the ground suffer from atmospheric effects and are not of enough accuracy. Up to now, space flights (SOHO) or balloon missions give consistent data but lead to spurious results due to the noise. As far as indirect observations are concerned, the more precise determination of the successive moments (mainly J₂, J₄ and even J₆), will be provided unambiguously by the study of the orbit of a spacecraft flying close to the Sun or around Mercury. This has been scheduled, but not yet achieved. In this paper we will first emphasize why it is important to know the successive zonal harmonics of the Sun with a high accuracy. We will show how their precise knowledge permits to obtain informations on the Sun's interior, mainly the shear's regions (tacholine or leptocline). Then we will give an up-to-date review of both theories (including the heliosismology approach) and data. We will explain some of the difficulties, mainly due to the differential rotation and we will give an insight of what the PICARD's mission will bring in that field. Then we will propose a novel concept for a Sun's mission, which would lead to the most accurate determination of the successive solar moments (that could be part of another project), and thus opening a new window on the Sun's interior.     

The interstellar heliopause probe technology reference study

The interstellar heliopause probe (IHP) is one of ESA’s technology reference studies (TRS). The TRS aim to focus the development of strategically important technologies of relevance to future science missions by studying technologically demanding and scientifically interesting missions that are currently not part of the science mission programme.

Equipped with a highly integrated payload suite (HIPS), the IHP will perform in situ exploration of the heliopause and the heliospheric interface. The HIPS, which is a standard element in all TRSs, miniaturize payloads through resource reduction by using miniaturized components and sensors, and by sharing common structures and payload functionality.

To achieve the scientific requirements of the mission, the spacecraft is to leave the heliosphere as close to the heliosphere nose as possible and reach a distance of 200 AU from the Sun within 25 years. This is possible by using a trajectory with two solar flybys and a solar sail with characteristic acceleration of 1.1 mm/s², which corresponds to a 245 × 245 m² solar sail and a sail thickness of 1–2 μm. The trajectory facilitates a modest sail design that could potentially be developed in a reasonable timeframe.

In this paper, an update to the results of studies being performed on this mission will be given and the current mission baseline and spacecraft design will be described. Furthermore, alternative solar sail systems and enabling technologies will be discussed.     

The Living With a Star (LWS) Sentinels

This paper gives a short account of the development of the living with a star Sentinels element. The Sentinels element is the heliospheric portion of the NASA program focused on improving our understanding of geo-effective events in the Sun–Earth connected system. The primary objectives of Sentinels are the investigation of the initiation and evolution of solar transients in the inner heliosphere, the acceleration and propagation of solar energetic particles, and the long term climatic change and structure of the inner heliosphere into which all of these geo-effective structures erupt. Due to the large volume of space to be covered, Sentinels will have to rely on, besides a dedicated mission, the observations of spacecraft from other programs of NASA and international partners along with a robust theoretical and modeling effort. The upcoming Sentinels Science and Technology Definition Team will develop specific details of this element.     

Magnetic coupling of the Sun–Earth system – The view from STEREO

The STEREO mission, launched on October 25 2006, will provide the first stereoscopic view of the Sun and its magnetic environment. A suite of identical instruments on two continuously separating spacecraft will monitor the onset of solar eruptive phenomena, and track them as the shocks and ejected material propagate through the interplanetary medium (IPM). The combination of remote sensing and in situ instrumentation will provide new insights into the onset of eruptions, the extent of their effects on the global structure of the low corona, and their subsequent evolution through the IPM. These observations will provide new constraints on the processes involved and allow us to distinguish between competing models of eruptive solar phenomena.     

PROBA-3 mission and the Shadow Position Sensors: Metrology measurement concept and budget

PROBA-3 is a space mission of the European Space Agency that will test, and validate metrology and control systems for autonomous formation flying of two independent satellites. PROBA-3 will operate in a High Elliptic Orbit and when approaching the apogee at 6·10⁴ Km, the two spacecraft will align to realize a giant externally occulted coronagraph named ASPIICS, with the telescope on one satellite and the external occulter on the other one, at inter-satellite distance of 144.3 m. The formation will be maintained over 6 hrs across the apogee transit and during this time different validation operations will be performed to confirm the effectiveness of the formation flying metrology concept, the metrology control systems and algorithms, and the spacecraft manoeuvring. The observation of the Sun’s Corona in the field of view [1.08;3.0]R_Sun will represent the scientific tool to confirm the formation flying alignment. In this paper, we review the mission concept and we describe the Shadow Position Sensors (SPS), one of the metrological systems designed to provide high accuracy (sub-millimetre level) absolute and relative alignment measurement of the formation flying. The metrology algorithm developed to convert the SPS measurements in lateral and longitudinal movement estimation is also described and the measurement budget summarized.     

Small satellite survey mission to the second Earth moon

This paper presents an innovative space mission devoted to the survey of the small Earth companion asteroid by means of nano platforms. Also known as the second Earth moon, Cruithne, is the target identified for the mission. Both the trajectory to reach the target and a preliminary spacecraft budget are here detailed. The idea is to exploit high efficient ion thrusters to reduce the propellant mass fraction in such a high total impulse mission (of the order of 1e6 Ns). This approach allows for a 100 kg class spacecraft with a very small Earth escape energy (5 km²/s²) to reach the destination in about 320 days. The 31% propellant mass fraction allows for a payload mass fraction of the order of 8% and this is sufficient to embark on such a small spacecraft a couple of nano-satellites deployed once at the target to carry out a complete survey of the asteroid. Two 2U Cubesats are here considered as representative payload, but also other scientific payloads or different platforms might be considered according with the specific mission needs. The small spacecraft used to transfer these to the target guarantees the manoeuvre capabilities during the interplanetary journey, the protection against radiations along the path and the telecommunication relay functions for the data transmission with Earth stations. The approach outlined in the paper offers reliable solutions to the main issues associated with a deep space nano-satellite mission thus allowing the exploitation of distant targets by means of these tiny spacecraft. The study presents an innovative general strategy for the NEO observation and Cruithne is chosen as test bench. This target, however, mainly for its relevant inclination, requires a relatively large propellant mass fraction that can be reduced if low inclination asteroids are of interest. This might increase the payload mass fraction (e.g. additional Cubesats and/or additional scientific payloads on the main bus) for the same 100 kg class mission.     

Sun CubE OnE: A multi-wavelength synoptic solar micro satellite

The Sun cubE onE (SEE) is a 12U CubeSat mission proposed for a phase A/B study to the Italian Space Agency that will investigate Gamma and X-ray fluxes and ultraviolet (UV) solar emission to support studies in Sun-Earth interaction and Space Weather from LEO. More in detail, SEE’s primary goals are to measure the flares emission from soft-X to Gamma ray energy range and to monitor the solar activity in the Fraunhofer Mg II doublet at 280 nm, taking advantage of a full disk imager payload. The Gamma and X-ray fluxes will be studied with unprecedented temporal resolution and with a multi-wavelength approach thanks to the combined use of silicon photodiode and silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) -based detectors. The flare spectrum will be explored from the keV to the MeV range of energies by the same payload, and with a cadence up to 10 kHz and with single-photon detection capabilities to unveil the sources of the solar flares. The energy range covers the same bands used by GOES satellites, which are the standard bands for flare magnitude definition. At the same time SiPM detectors combined with scintillators allow to cover the non-thermal bremsstrahlung emission in the gamma energy range. Given its UV imaging capabilities, SEE will be a key space asset to support detailed studies on solar activity, especially in relation to ultraviolet radiation which strongly interacts with the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, and in relation to space safety, included in the field of human space exploration. The main goal for the UV payload is to study the evolution of the solar UV emission in the Mg II band at two different time scales: yearly variations along the solar cycle and transient variations during flare events. The Mg II index is commonly used as a proxy of the solar activity in the Sun-as-a-star paradigm, in which solar irradiance variations in the UV correlate with the variations in stratospheric ozone concentrations and other physical parameters of the Earth high atmosphere. SEE data will be used together with space and ground-based observatories that provide Solar data (e.g. Solar Orbiter, IRIS, GONG, TSST), high energy particle fluxes (e.g. GOES, MAXI, CSES) and geomagnetic data in a multi-instrument/multi-wavelength/multi-messenger approach.     

Imaging interplanetary CMEs at radio frequency from solar polar orbit

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) represent a great concentration of mass and energy input into the lower corona. They have come to be recognized as the major driver of physical conditions change in the Sun–Earth system. Consequently, observations of CMEs are important for understanding and ultimately predicting space weather conditions. This paper discusses a proposed mission, the Solar Polar Orbit Radio Telescope (SPORT) mission, which will observe the propagation of interplanetary CMEs to distances of near 0.35 AU from the Sun. The orbit of SPORT is an elliptical solar polar orbit. The inclination angle between the orbit and ecliptic plane should be about 90°. The main payload on board SPORT will be an imaging radiometer working at the meter wavelength band (radio telescope), which can follow the propagation of interplanetary CMEs. The images that are obtained by the radio telescope embody the brightness temperature of the objectives. Due to the very large size required for the antenna aperture of the radio telescope, we adopt interferometric imaging technology to reduce it. Interferometric imaging technology is based on indirect spatial frequency domain measurements plus Fourier transformation. The SPORT spacecraft will also be equipped with a set of optical and in situ measurement instruments such as a EUV solar telescope, a solar wind ion instrument, an energetic particle detector, a magnetometer, a wave detector and a solar radio burst spectrometer.     

Maps of hydrogen isotopes at low altitudes in the inner zone from sampex observations

The PET instrument aboard the SAMPEX satellite has provided us with long-term intra-calibrated observations of geomagnetically trapped protons and deuterons in the inner zone, suitable for use in constraining the low-altitude portions of radiation belt models being developed as successors to AP-8. These observations have been summarized elsewhere (Looper et al., 1996). Here we report a detection of geomagnetically-trapped tritium at energies from 14 to 35 MeV/nuc below L = 1.2, at about 1/8 the flux of deuterium previously reported at that location and at similar energy per nucleon. We also demonstrate the utility of the SAMPEX/PET observations for measuring the east-west anisotropy in the trapped particle flux at low altitudes, which is due to displacement of particle gyrocenters from the position of observation in a region of strong flux gradients. This anisotropy is implicitly ignored in omnidirectional radiation-flux models, but it can be important to mission planners considering how to distribute shielding over the surface of oriented spacecraft in low Earth orbit.     

OSIRIS-REx low-velocity particles during outbound cruise

We analyzed high-angular rate streaks first recorded by OSIRIS-REx’s MapCam during a 2017 search for Earth Trojan asteroids. We interpret them as water-ice particles that translated across the imager’s field of view, originating from the spacecraft itself. Their translation velocities approximated 0.1–1?m/s based on reasonable conclusions about their range. Pursuing several lines of investigation to seek a coherent hypothesis, we conclude that the episodic releases of the water ice particles are associated with spacecraft attitudes that resulted in solar illumination of previously shadowed regions. This correlation suggests that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft itself possesses micro-climatic zones consisting of hot regions and cold traps that may temporarily potentially pass volatiles back and forth before losing most of them.