UK scientists plan for Chinese space mission

Scientists from the University of Leicester, Imperial College, and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (part of University College London) plan to explore near-Earth space and its connection with the Sun by building instruments for the forthcoming Chinese KuaFu satellite mission. KuaFu will follow solar storms from their origin on the Sun to their global effect on the Earth and its environs. Cameras pointed at the Sun will capture the outburst of solar flares and track the passage of coronal mass ejections through interplanetary space. Meanwhile, other cameras monitoring the Earth’s auroral rings and a suite of sensors measureing electromagnetic fields and plasma (electrically charged particles) will investigate their impact on the Earth and the resulting geomagnetic storms they can induce.

Such storms have in the past caused power-outages in Canada and Scandinavia and produce a hazardous radiation environment for satellites and astronauts. There is also a suspected link between solar activity and Earth’s climate. The KuaFu mission will be the first dedicated to monitoring space weather events from ‘cradle-to-grave’, helping us to understand the intimate connection between solar activity and conditions on Earth.

The KuaFu mission will require three satellites. Two will remain in orbit around the Earth, allowing a continuous view of auroral activity in the northern hemisphere, and regular glimpses of the aurora in the southern hemisphere. As the satellites fly through the Earth’s magnetosphere they will also measure particles from the solar wind interacting with the atmosphere. The University of Leicester will build a camera for each of these spacecraft to monitor the aurora, while MSSL and Imperial College will contribute particle and magnetic field detectors.

A third spacecraft will sit between the Earth and the Sun, taking pictures of the Sun’s surface with a camera built by MSSL, while measuring the Sun’s magnetic field with an instrument built by Imperial College. Other instruments will be donated by Canada, China, and European partners. The mission, planned for launch in 2012, will place UK scientists at the forefront of the international effort to monitor and understand space weather.