ISRO Puts PROBA-3 In Orbit. A 10-Point Guide About The European Satellite

Here's what you need to know about the European satellite PROBA-3.

1. PROBA (short for Project for Onboard Anatomy) is a space program under the European Space Agency (ESA). A series of satellite launches have been carried out under PROBA. Today's model is the third in that series, hence the name PROBA-3.
2. PROBA-3 is a solar mission. Its aim is to study the sun's corona with unprecedented precision. PROBA-3 consists of two independent three-axis stabilized spacecraft: the 310 kg Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the 240 kg Occulter Spacecraft (OSC). Both spacecraft have highly elliptical orbits around the Earth, with their apogee, or furthest distance from the Earth's surface at the equator, being 60,500 km.
3. The mission will demonstrate “formation flight” as part of a large-scale scientific experiment, the European Space Agency said. The two spacecraft in orbit will create solar coronagraphs about 150 meters long and will study the Sun's faint corona closer to the Sun's edge than has been achieved so far.
4. By flying in very close formation of 150 meters, the Occulter spacecraft casts precise shadows on the coronagraph telescope, thereby blocking direct sunlight. Coronagraphs will be able to map and image the sun's corona across the full electromagnetic spectrum, including visible light, ultraviolet (UV), and infrared (IR). It is also possible to image the solar corona with polarized light, which consists of waves that oscillate in a single plane, including linearly, circularly, and elliptically polarized light. CSC can do this for hours at a time.
5. The scientific objective of the PROBA-3 mission is to observe the solar corona with a solar radius of 1.1 in the visible wavelength range (visible light). The radius of the Sun is a unit of distance used to express the size of a star compared to the size of the Sun. 1 Solar radius is equal to 6.95700 x 10(8) meters, or 695,700 km. This is approximately 109 times the radius of Earth. This will make PROBA-3 the most accurate satellite for mapping and imaging the sun's corona.
6. PROBA-3 represents the next step in formation flying. As a world first, its two satellites, the Coronagraph spacecraft and the Occulter spacecraft, will maintain formation at a distance of approximately 150 meters from each other for six hours at a time every 19 hours, with precision within millimeters and seconds. Microorbital. In effect, the pair would form a virtual giant satellite. And this is accomplished autonomously, without relying on guidance from the ground.
7. Now that the two satellites have been successfully placed into orbit, there will be a short preparation period for the two satellites and some safety tests will be carried out by the European Space Agency. Collision maneuver tests will be conducted as the two satellites fly independently but close together in tandem. Once these tests are complete, the two satellites will be placed into a safe relative tandem orbit. That way, you can safely leave them alone without the risk of them colliding or running away from each other.
8. The PROBA-3 satellite repeatedly demonstrates acquisition, rendezvous, close-in operations, formation flight, coronagraph observations, separation, and convoy flight in any orbit.
9. According to the European Space Agency, PROBA-3 will be a “laboratory in space” to validate strategy, guidance, navigation and control, and other algorithms such as relative GPS navigation previously tried in ground simulators.
10. ESA said the mission includes a rendezvous experiment. Test sensors and algorithms for satellite rendezvous (cooperative and non-cooperative) in elliptical orbits. This cutting-edge technology could be used for future Mars sample return missions or to take satellites out of low-Earth orbit, which could also help declutter the space around Earth.