ESA's Sun-watching Proba-3 formation flyers [updated]

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Sun-watching Proba-3 formation flyers tested for take-off

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ESA’s pair of Sun-watching Proba-3 satellites have been placed in take-off configuration, one on top of the other, for testing in simulated launch and space conditions at IABG in Germany, ahead of their planned lift-off next year.

Proba-3 is made up of two satellites being launched together into orbit for a single mission. The pair will fly in precise formation relative to one another to cast a sustained shadow from the disk-faced ‘Occulter’ spacecraft to the ‘Coronagraph’ spacecraft, allowing the observation of the inner layers of the Sun’s faint corona, or atmosphere, which are normally concealed by the brilliance of the solar disc.

Read More: ESA

 

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Face to face with Sun-eclipsing Proba-3

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Through exquisite, millimetre-scale, formation flying, the dual satellites making up ESA’s Proba-3 will accomplish what was previously a space mission impossible: cast a precisely held shadow from one platform to the other, in the process blocking out the fiery Sun to observe its ghostly surrounding atmosphere on a prolonged basis.

Ahead of the Proba-3 pair launching together later this year, the scientists who will make use of Proba-3 observations were able to see the satellites with their own eyes. Members of this team will test hardware developed for the mission during an actual terrestrial solar eclipse over Northern America next April.

Read More: ➡️ ESA

 

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Proba-3's laser-precise positioning

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An infrared view of a laser-based test campaign – taking place at Redwire Space in Kruibeke, Belgium – which represents crucial preparation for ESA’s precision formation flying mission, Proba-3.

Later this year, two satellites will be launched together into orbit to maintain formation relative to each other down to a few millimetres, creating an artificial solar eclipse in space. Proba-3’s ‘Occulter’ spacecraft will cast a shadow onto the other ‘Coronagraph’ spacecraft to block out the fiery face of the Sun and make the ghostly solar corona available for sustained observation for up to six hours per 19.5 hour orbit.

Read More: ➡️ ESA

 

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ESA's solar eclipse maker, Proba-3

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Hundreds of millions of people will witness next week’s total solar eclipse across North America, and solar physicists from around the globe are flocking to join them. Eclipses offer a brief glimpse of the Sun’s ghostly surrounding atmosphere – the solar corona – normally kept invisible by the Sun’s sheer glare. But the corona will soon be opened up for more sustained study: today in Belgium ESA has unveiled the pair of spacecraft making up its new Proba-3 mission, planned to produce orbital solar eclipse events on demand.

Proba-3 stack separating

Proba-3’s Occulter spacecraft will fly around 150 m away from the second Coronagraph spacecraft, shown to media today at the Redwire Space facility in Kruibeke, Belgium, where they are undergoing pre-flight testing. The pair will line up with the Sun so precisely that the Occulter casts a shadow onto the face of the Coronagraph, blanking out the Sun to reveal the corona.

Read More: ➡️ ESA

 

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Proba-3 tries formation flying on the ground

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The two Proba-3 satellites were set facing each other across a cleanroom as cameras, LEDs, a laser and shadow sensors were activated in turn, testing the systems that will let the pair sense their precise positions relative to each other, allowing them to line up precisely in orbit down to a single millimetre.

When two satellites venture to within a few hundred metres of each other, the usual response is a collision avoidance manoeuvre. But ESA’s double-satellite Proba-3 will be performing a kind of controlled dance in orbit, its two elements coming as close as 25 m apart.

Read More: ➡️ ESA