Jonathan Amos,science correspondent, @BBCAMoss
British engineers will lead the development of a new satellite to monitor the bursts of energy the sun sends towards Earth.
The announcement of Vigil, as the spacecraft will be known, comes timely after a major solar storm struck our planet earlier this month.
The biggest event in 20 years Bright aurora in skies around the world.
Airbus UK will assemble Vigil and prepare it for launch in 2031.
that European Space Agency (Esa) mission. The €340 million (£290 million) industrial contract to start construction was signed at the ESA and European Union Space Council meeting in Brussels.
Vigil will be sent to an observation location about 150 million kilometers from Earth, making it easier to see the gap between Earth and the Sun.
In this way, you can gain a unique perspective on:
- sun flare – Intense radiation flashes that travel at the speed of light and can degrade communication and navigation systems
- Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) – A surge in charged particles that can become entangled in magnetic fields and damage infrastructure such as power grids.
Today, almost all information about this “space weather” comes from satellites that look directly at the sun.
From its special vantage point, Vigil will be able to see potentially problematic areas on the rotating surface of the sun before they are visible to Earth.
“We will be providing a further warning for three to four days,” Dr Mark Gibbs said. British Meteorological Office space weather forecast.
“And it’s not just extra notice – it will take longer to track active regions and see exactly how they are developing, which will increase our confidence in predicting their ability to produce solar flares and coronal mass ejections. “He said. BBC News.
The UK has been trying for years to get its European partners to agree to the Vigil mission. The existing satellite fleet is aging and in urgent need of overhaul.
Americans are part of this push for renewal. They plan to launch a satellite next year. Space Weather Follow-up (SWFO) It will occupy the traditional observation position directly in front of the Earth.
One of the key pieces of equipment the United States will provide to both missions is a coronagraph, a device that blocks the glare of the entire sun to make it easier to see processes occurring near the sun's surface.
“The coronagraph will tell us how CMEs are developing near the surface, and we will also have a heliospheric imager to track CMEs as they move through space toward Earth. They have arrived.” explains Dr. Michelle Sprake, Vigil Senior Systems Engineer at Airbus.
No significant problems were reported due to the geomagnetic storm over the weekend of May 11/12. This is partly because the forecasting capabilities of organizations such as the UK Met Office and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have become much improved.
“We are in constant contact with various sectors, such as National Grid,” Dr Gibbs said.
“The storm 10 days ago was not at a level where we would have expected any problems with the power grid, but we had open channels to effectively mitigate any potential impacts if they did occur.”
The Vigil weighs just over 2 tons (fully fueled) and can carry a total of six pieces of equipment.
Once built, it will be tested at Britain's new national satellite testing facility, which opened on Tuesday. The spacecraft is expected to orbit aboard the Ariane-6 rocket.
The Vigil deal was one of a number of announcements to be made at the start of the two-day European Space Conference in Brussels.
The Exploration Company, a Munich/Bordeaux-based startup, has signed an agreement with established aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space in Turin to advance the design of a space capsule capable of transporting cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). ).
Esa Secretary General Dr Josef Aschbacher took the opportunity to name the first of the following individuals: Europe's latest astronaut intake I'm going to take a flight to the ISS.
French helicopter test pilot Sophie Adenot and Belgian biomedical engineer Raphaël Liégeois will each spend six months on the orbital platform.
Adenot, a graduate of Britain's renowned test pilot school at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, will fly first.