Cape Canaveral – A pair of European satellites were launched into space on Thursday in the first mission to create artificial solar eclipses through precision formation flights.
Once operations begin next year, each fake eclipse should last six hours. This is a considerable increase in time compared to the few minutes that a natural eclipse lasts on Earth, which will allow a prolonged study of the sun’s corona or its outer atmosphere.
The probes left from India.
Presented as a technological test, the two satellites will separate in a month and fly 150 meters (492 feet) apart once they reach their destination on Earth, lining up with the sun so that one of the probes casts a shadow on the other.
1/16 | This is how the total solar eclipse was seen in different cities in the United States. The solar eclipse was seen in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. – NASA/Joel Kowsky
This will require extreme precision, just one millimeter, the equivalent of the thickness of a fingernail, according to the European Space Agency. To maintain their position, the satellites will rely on GPS, star trackers, lasers and radio links, flying autonomously.
Each cube-shaped ship measures less than five feet wide. The satellite casting the shadow activates a disk to block the sun from the telescope on the other satellite. This device mimics the moon in a natural total solar eclipse, with the darkened satellite acting like Earth.
“This has enormous scientific relevance, as well as testing high-precision formation flying,” said Dietmar Pilz, director of technology and engineering at the European Space Agency.
1/9 | In community: this is how they enjoyed the solar eclipse from the Río Piedras Campus of the UPR. The Department of Physics of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, together with professors, students and visitors, observed the total solar eclipse.
– Josian Bruno/GFR MEDIA
Scientists need the sun’s dazzling face to be completely blocked so they can examine the corona-like part that surrounds it, getting an especially good view near the sun’s edge on this mission. They are particularly interested in learning why the corona is hotter than the surface of the sun, and they also want to better understand coronal mass ejections, eruptions of billions of tons of plasma with magnetic fields into space.
The resulting geomagnetic storms can disrupt power supply and communications both on Earth and in orbit. In addition, they can cause impressive auroras in unexpected places.
With an unequal orbit ranging from 370 to 37,000 miles away, the satellites will take almost 20 hours to orbit the Earth. Six of those hours—at the far end of the orbit—will be dedicated to generating the eclipse. The first results should be available in March, after reviewing both ships, according to the space agency.
1 / 31 | PHOTOS: See how the solar eclipse graced the sky around the world. From San Antonio. -Eric Gay
The $210 million mission, named Proba-3, is expected to create hundreds of eclipses over the two years it will be operational. Once their work is done, the satellites will gradually descend until they burn up in the atmosphere, probably within five years.
Liftoff was delayed a day by a last-minute problem with the backup propulsion system of one of the satellites, crucial for precision formation flying. The European Space Agency said engineers turned to a computer software solution.