Hot shot for the teams! 48 hours before a strong gravitational assist while flying over Venus, the european probe passed through the result of a very large solar coronal mass ejection.
Fortunately, all is well, Solar Orbiter is designed to withstand this kind of phenomenon. And above all, it recorded all the data! The subsequent flyby went as planned.
Attention, new rule!
Preparing for a flyover with gravitational assistance is not easy. This requires a long preparation upstream, especially since even if the main mission of Solar Orbiter is to study our star, a significant part of its instruments record important data in the vicinity of Venus.
Suffice to say that after an eruption on August 30, when the team responsible for the Solar Orbiter mission discovered that the Sun had produced a huge coronal mass ejection, the surprise had a taste of challenge. The probe suffered the disturbance 48 hours before its flyby, which took place as planned on September 4, and ultimately the recorded data showed that this was a rather unique opportunity to measure the effects of an event sun on the atmosphere of Venus. A chance, in the end!
Important measures
In reality, fortunately Solar Orbiter was precisely designed to evolve in an environment close to the Sun, with a large radiator and central shielding for its electronics. Because a solar storm, with its charged particles, can disrupt (or even, in extreme cases, damage) the internal systems of a probe… What’s more, a few days before an overflight, when the probe does not necessarily have its usual orientation.
Instruments “ in situ from Solar Orbiter recorded the environmental data, much of which is still stored on the spacecraft before being uploaded in the weeks and months to come. The flyby took place, and the probe passed 6,000 km from the surface of Venus, before the next pass near the Sun scheduled for October at a distance of less than 50 million kilometers (0.3 AU).
A need to anticipate
For ESA, this passage and these measurements reinforce the resolution around the future Vigil mission, which will leave from the Earth-Sun L5 Lagrange point in order to observe our star “out of step” with respect to conventional terrestrial missions, including the prevention and the cover only allow us to observe the half of the sphere facing us.
According to the European agency, the emergence over the last decade of satellites that are more numerous and more sensitive to solar events makes it necessary to ” solar meteorology which must be reliable. The corollary mass ejection that Solar Orbiter and Venus passed through was not directed towards Earth.
Source : ESA
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