Provoking artificial solar eclipses using two orbiting satellites is the mission of Proba 3, a project led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium and the European Space Agency (ESA). It is the fruit of 10 years of work for Belgian researchers, who will still have to wait before being able to observe. The launch of the rocket from an Indian center planned for this morning has been postponed. The cause of this postponement would be “an anomaly” on the spacecraft, indicates the ESA. The launch is now scheduled for Thursday at 11:38 a.m. (Belgian time).
■ Explanations by Fanny Rochez and Frédéric De Henau
Proba-3 is a European Space Agency mission which inaugurates a new approach to solar observation using formation flying. This project, made up of two satellites flying with millimeter precision, will reproduce, according to the SPP Scientific Policy (BELSPO), an artificial solar eclipse to allow an in-depth study of the solar corona. The satellites will be launched with a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
This vehicle has the force capable of sending the 550 kg that the two satellites weigh into an elliptical orbit at a distance of between 600 and 60,000 kilometers from Earth. The satellites will align with the sun about 150 meters apart to cast a shadow from one satellite to the other, creating long-lasting artificial solar eclipses to reveal the sun’s faint outer atmosphere, without be blinded by its brightness.
The Royal Observatory of Belgium is overseeing the scientific operation of the ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun) instrument, which will make it possible to observe the flicker of the sun in a unique way.
