Two satellites of ESA’s Proba-3 mission successfully launched
Keystone-SDA
Two satellites on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Proba-3 mission have been successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. Swiss technology is on board.
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Proba-3 is an ESA mission inaugurating a new approach to solar observation using formation flying. Initially scheduled for Wednesday morning, the launch was postponed until Thursday.
The project, comprising two satellites flying with millimetric precision, is designed to reproduce an artificial solar eclipse, enabling in-depth study of the Sun’s corona.
The satellites were launched using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This vehicle has the power to send the 550kg weight of the two satellites into an elliptical orbit at a distance of between 600 and 60,000 kilometres from the Earth.
The satellites will align themselves with the Sun some 150 metres apart, casting a shadow from one satellite to the other, creating long-lasting artificial solar eclipses to reveal the Sun’s faint outer atmosphere, without being blinded by its brightness.
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Swiss technology
A measuring instrument developed and built in Switzerland is also on board. Called “Dara” (Digital Absolute Radiometer), it is mounted on the satellite that will be closest to the sun. A team from the Davos Physical Meteorological Observatory has been working on this instrument for about ten years.
Dara, which weighs around 3kg, measures the intensity of solar radiation, i.e. the exact amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s atmosphere. It should thus contribute to providing a series of continuous measurements of solar radiation.
Fourteen countries are participating in this mission.
Translated from French by DeepL/ts
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