![]() ![]() ![]() This will bring the orbit to an inclination of 25 degrees with a perihelion of 0.28 AU, an aphelion of 0.91 AU, and a period of 168 days. The mission will use six gravity assist maneuvers: one Earth flyby () and five Venus flybys (,, ,, and ) during the 7-year nominal mission. The first perihelion will be in June 2020. The spacecraft launched on an Atlas 5-411 (AV-087) into a short Earth parking orbit followed by injection into an elliptical heliocentric orbit. Solar Orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 10 February 2020 at 04:03 UT (11:03 pm, February 9 EST). The remote-sensing instruments are an Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), a Coronagraph (METIS), a Polarimetric andHelioseismic Imager (PHI), a Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI), a Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE), and an X-ray Spectrometer/Telescope (STIX). The in-situ instruments comprise an Energetic Particle Detector (EPD), a Magnetometer (MAG), a Radio and Plasma Waves sensor (RPW), and a Solar Wind Plasma Analyser (SWA). Solar Orbiter carries two types of instruments, in-situ instruments making direct measurements of the heliospheric environment, and remote sensing instruments, which view the Sun and heliosphere from a distance. Low gain antennas are used in the launch and early orbit phase, and are available for backup. Telemetry is dual X-band through steerable medium and high-gain antennas. The spacecraft is 3-axis stabilized to keep the heat shield oriented towards the Sun. The shield has apertures for various instruments. A carbon fiber composite, titanium layered solar shield covers one side of the spacecraft. There is a 4.4 meter instrument boom and three 6.5 meter antennas protruding from the spacecraft body. Solar Orbiter comprises a 2.5 x 3.0 x 2.5 meter box-shaped bus with two solar panel wings spanning 18 meters to supply power. Solar Orbiter has as its primary science objectives: to study the drivers of the solar wind and the origin of the coronal magnetic field to determine how solar transients drive heliospheric variability to learn how solar eruptions produce the energetic particles that fill the heliosphere and to study how the solar dynamo works and drives connections between the Sun and the heliosphere. The European Space Agency (ESA) Solar Orbiter mission will study the Sun from a highly elliptical orbit getting as close as 0.28 AU (42 million km), from which it will use a suite of instruments to make high-latitude observations of the Sun and heliosphere, including the magnetic field, energetic particles, solar wind, and transient phenomena. ![]()
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