NASA to Unveil New Sun and Space Weather Missions

NASA is set to host a media teleconference to detail two new missions focused on understanding the Sun’s influence and space weather. The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory are slated for a joint launch no earlier than September 23rd on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The teleconference will take place on Thursday, September 4th, at 12 p.m. EDT, with audio streaming live on NASA’s website.

The IMAP mission is designed to map the boundaries of the heliosphere, the protective bubble generated by the solar wind that encompasses our solar system. This mission will act as a celestial cartographer, investigating the heliosphere’s interaction with interstellar space and charting the distribution of particles within the interplanetary medium. IMAP will also provide near real-time observations of the solar wind and energetic particles, which can lead to hazardous space weather events capable of affecting spacecraft and NASA hardware, particularly as the agency pursues its Artemis missions to the Moon.

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, on the other hand, will focus on imaging the ultraviolet glow of Earth’s exosphere, the uppermost layer of our planet’s atmosphere. The data collected will offer insights into how solar weather impacts the exosphere and, consequently, Earth itself. The initial observation of this faint glow, known as the geocorona, was made during the Apollo 16 mission using a telescope designed by George Carruthers and deployed on the Moon.

In addition to IMAP and the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, the same rocket launch will carry the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) mission. This NOAA mission will monitor solar wind disturbances and track coronal mass ejections before they reach Earth, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding and prediction of space weather events.

The IMAP mission is led by David J. McComas of Princeton University, with an international team of 27 partner institutions. The spacecraft construction and operational management for IMAP will be handled by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. IMAP is the fifth mission within NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes Program.

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory mission is under the leadership of Lara Waldrop from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Mission implementation is being managed by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, which was responsible for the design and construction of the mission’s two ultraviolet imagers. BAE Systems developed the Carruthers spacecraft.

Both the IMAP and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory missions are managed by the Solar Terrestrial Probes Program Office, which is part of the Explorers and Heliophysics Project Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, all under the purview of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is overseeing the launch services for this endeavor.

Media interested in participating in the teleconference must RSVP by 11 a.m. on September 4th to Sarah Frazier at sarah.frazier@nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.

Article by Mel Anara, based upon information from NASA News

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