Context:
The European Space Agency (ESA) lost contact with the Coronagraph satellite of the Proba-3 mission due to a power failure, highlighting challenges in advanced space missions.
Key Highlights:
- Scientific Principle / Mission Objective
- Proba-3 aims to create an artificial solar eclipse in space.
- Studies the Sun’s corona, which is otherwise obscured by bright sunlight.
- Mission Details
- Launched by ESA (Dec 2024) aboard ISRO’s PSLV-C59.
- World’s first precision formation-flying mission.
- Key Features
- Twin Satellite System:
- Occulter: Blocks sunlight.
- Coronagraph: Captures corona images.
- Formation Flying:
- Maintain ~150 m distance with millimeter accuracy.
- Autonomous Navigation:
- Uses lasers, cameras, cold-gas thrusters.
- Artificial Eclipse:
- Enables continuous observation unlike brief natural eclipses.
- Recent Issue
- Power failure anomaly → satellite entered silent survival mode.
- Loss of communication with Coronagraph spacecraft.
- Significance
- Helps understand Solar Winds & Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs).
- Important for predicting space weather impacts on:
- Satellites
- Power grids
- Communication systems
- Demonstrates future modular space telescope technologies.
Relevant Prelims Points:
- Proba-3: ESA mission; launched via ISRO PSLV.
- Corona: Outer atmosphere of the Sun.
- CME: Massive burst of solar plasma affecting Earth’s magnetosphere.
- Formation Flying: Coordinated movement of multiple spacecraft as one system.