ISRO successfully launched the European Space Agency’s PROBA-3 satellite today using its reliable PSLV rocket in the 61st commercial mission, ‘C-59’.
Here’s a breakdown of the key aspects of the PROBA-3 mission:
- Mission Purpose: PROBA-3 aims to observe the Sun’s corona with unprecedented precision. It will study the Sun at 1.1 solar radius, roughly 695,700 km from the Sun’s surface.
- Formation Flying: PROBA-3 uses two satellites — the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC). These will fly in close formation, maintaining a distance of about 150 meters.
- Precision Operation: The satellites will maintain formation with millimetre and arc second precision, autonomously without guidance from the ground.
- Operational Duration: They will stay in this formation for six hours per orbit, which lasts 19 hours and 36 minutes.
- Virtual Giant Satellite: The two satellites together will act as a single virtual satellite, performing as one unit to map the Sun’s corona.
- Testing Phase: After the successful launch, a short safety and manoeuvre test will ensure both satellites can avoid collisions during their close proximity flight.
- Autonomous Flight: These satellites will perform all operations autonomously, demonstrating technologies like relative GPS navigation, formation flying, and rendezvous capabilities.
- Scientific Goal: The mission will study the Sun’s corona in multiple wavelengths (visible, UV, and IR) and also in polarised light.
- Space Laboratory: PROBA-3 will serve as a laboratory in space, testing cutting-edge technologies for future space missions, including Mars sample return and de-orbiting satellites.
- Satellite Details: The CSC weighs 310 kg, and the OSC weighs 240 kg. They will orbit Earth in a highly elliptical path, with the furthest point at 60,500 km above Earth’s equator.
The European Space Agency (ESA) sees this mission as a major step in space technology, and its results may help tackle future challenges like de-orbiting satellites and exploring Mars.
