ESA Gives Go-Ahead for SMILE Mission with China

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ESA Gives Go-Ahead for SMILE Mission with China

Post by bystander » Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:04 pm

ESA Gives Go-Ahead for SMILE Mission with China
ESA | Space Science | Science & Technology | SMILE | 2019 Mar 05
The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, SMILE, has been given the green light for implementation by ESA's Science Programme Committee. The announcement clears the way for full development of this new mission to explore the Sun-Earth connection, which will be conducted in collaboration with China.

SMILE is expected to revolutionise scientists' understanding of the physical processes taking place during the continuous interaction between particles in the solar wind and Earth's magnetic shield – the magnetosphere.

The mission will be a major scientific endeavour in collaboration between ESA and China, following on from the success of the Double Star / Tan Ce mission which flew between 2003 and 2008. Unlike Double Star, which started out as a China-only project, SMILE is envisaged from the start as a joint ESA-China mission. ...

UK to tackle danger of the solar wind and find new Earth-like planets
United Kingdom Space Agency | 2019 Mar 08
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ESA: Cluster and XMM-Newton pave the way for SMILE

Post by bystander » Thu Aug 29, 2019 7:59 pm

Cluster and XMM-Newton pave the way for SMILE
ESA | Science & Technology | SMILE | 2019 Aug 27
The Solar wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission is still four years away from launch, but scientists are already using existing ESA satellites, such as the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and the Cluster mission studying Earth's magnetosphere, to pave the way for this pioneering venture.

A joint European-Chinese spacecraft, SMILE is currently scheduled for launch in 2023. It will be placed in a highly inclined, elliptical orbit around Earth, which will take it as far as 120 000 km from our planet.

One of its primary objectives will be to observe the Sun-Earth connection, particularly the interactions on Earth's dayside between the solar wind – a flow of charged particles streaming from the Sun into interplanetary space – and the magnetosphere of our planet. ...

SMILE will carry four instruments to observe this ever-changing celestial battlefield: a light ion analyser, a magnetometer, a soft X-ray imager, and an ultraviolet aurora imager. ...

Exospheric Neutral Hydrogen Density at the Nominal 10 RE Subsolar Point
Deduced from XMM-Newton X-ray Observations
~ Hyunju K. Connor, Jennifer A. Carter Soft X-ray Imaging of the Magnetosheath and Cusps Under
Different Solar Wind Conditions: MHD Simulations
~ T. R. Sun et al
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
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Re: ESA Gives Go-Ahead for SMILE Mission with China

Post by Forrest White » Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:51 am

To space manufacturers belong many countries these days. Canadian Space Agency also joins SMILE mission. The spacecraft will be equipped with 4 instruments, two of which are provided by China, and one each from Europe and Canada.

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