Produced by: Tarun Mishra
Following the recent Total Solar Eclipse, India's space agency, ISRO is preparing to launch Europe's Proba-3 spacecraft, aiming to artificially create solar eclipses in space.
Source : ESA
Proba-3 will conduct precision formation flying to create a solar coronagraph, enabling closer study of the Sun's corona, a mysterious layer usually visible only during solar eclipses.
The Sun's corona, hotter than the Sun itself, is the origin of space weather. Proba-3 aims to bridge the observational gap between the low and high corona, offering insights into this enigmatic region.
Source : ESA
ESA has developed cutting-edge technologies for precise positioning and coordination of the spacecraft, including cold gas thrusters and vision-based detection systems, ensuring millimetre-scale accuracy.
ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry Proba-3 into a high Earth orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, although the launch date is yet to be finalized.
Once in orbit, the Occulter and Coronagraph satellites will autonomously perform precision formation flying, maintaining a distance of 150m apart, enabling six hours of observation per orbit.
Proba-2, another spacecraft, captured two instances of the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, providing valuable data from its Sun-synchronous orbit around 700 km above Earth's surface.
ISRO's collaboration with ESA for the Proba-3 mission marks a significant step in space exploration, offering new possibilities for studying the Sun's corona and advancing our understanding of solar phenomena.