Final preparations are underway for a groundbreaking space mission that will utilize satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth. The Proba-3 mission, led by the European Space Agency, will involve two spacecraft orbiting the planet in a precise arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimeter. This mission marks the ESA’s first venture into precise formation flying in orbit.
Scheduled to launch from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, the spacecraft will embark on a four-month voyage before reaching a highly elliptic orbit that brings them as close as 370 miles to Earth and as far as 37,000 miles away. The goal is to demonstrate a new concept and technology in space by controlling the flight path of the two spacecraft with extreme precision.
If successful, the spacecraft will align with the sun so that the lead spacecraft creates a controlled shadow on its partner, allowing instruments on the second spacecraft to observe and measure the sun’s corona, the outer layer of its atmosphere. This innovative approach aims to provide scientists with a new way to study the sun’s corona, which is typically observed during natural solar eclipses.
Traditionally, researchers have had to chase natural solar eclipses around the world for brief observation windows, often hindered by weather conditions. The Proba-3 mission, with an estimated cost of €200 million, plans to generate 50 artificial solar eclipses annually, each lasting six hours. By better understanding the sun’s corona, scientists hope to unravel the mystery of why the corona is hotter than the sun’s surface.
Moreover, insights from the mission could enhance predictions of solar weather, coronal mass ejections, and solar storms, which have the potential to disrupt spacecraft operations and cause communication blackouts on Earth. The Proba-3 spacecraft will orbit the planet every 19.7 hours for two years, conducting precise formation flying maneuvers for six hours in each orbit.
In addition to its scientific objectives, the mission will test maneuvers that could be useful for servicing malfunctioning satellites or removing debris from orbit. The ability to have multiple satellites operate in precise formations opens up possibilities for developing space-based observatories and instruments with enhanced capabilities. This could lead to the creation of larger instruments composed of multiple satellites, enabling the study of various phenomena in the solar system and beyond.
As technology advances, the potential for deploying multiple satellites in precise formations offers new opportunities for scientific research and exploration beyond Earth. The Proba-3 mission represents a significant step towards unlocking the mysteries of the sun’s corona and improving our understanding of solar phenomena that impact life on Earth and in space.
