NASA announces SUNRISE Mission

On March 30, 2020, NASA announced Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SUNRISE) mission. The mission is to study about how sun creates Giant Solar Particle Storms.

Highlights

Studying the solar storms, the mission aims to understand the working of the solar system. The study will also aid future astronauts travelling to Mars and protect them from solar storms.

About the Mission

The mission is to deploy six CubeSats in Geosynchronous-orbit. The mission has come true because of the success of DARPA High-Frequency Research and Mars Cube One (MARCO).

Tasks assigned to SUNRISE

The Cubesats will use radio telescope to capture radio images of low-frequency emission that are emitted from the sun. These will be sent to the earth through Deep Space Network. Also, the Cubesats will create a 3D mapping to learn about location of giant particle that are originated from the sun.

The mission is to study sun’s spectrum. This is important as sun’s spectrum cannot be studied from the earth due to the ionosphere.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2020