Solar storm satellite Smile launched into space with Swiss technology

(CONNECT) The launch of the ESA satellite Smile (Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) in the early morning of May 19 was also followed with excitement at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland(FHNW): Under the leadership of the FHNW, a Swiss consortium developed the cooling system for the SXI X-ray camera. The consortium includes KOEGL Space from Dielsdorf and Space Acoustics from Rafz.

The launch, which was broadcast live and commented on by the European Space Agency (ESA), took place at 5.52 a.m. Central European Time at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. According to an ESA statement, the spacecraft's solar panels deployed at 6.49 a.m., meaning that Smile can now supply its scientific instruments with electricity. Once this process has been completed, the start is considered successful.

Smile is a cooperative project between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The aim of the mission is to gain a better understanding of space weather in order to make more precise forecasts. This is because solar winds and storms can dynamically change the Earth's magnetic field, i.e. the Earth's protective shell, and also influence GPS systems, explains the FHNW in an article.

"We are about to experience something unprecedented - the Earth's invisible protective shell in action," ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher is quoted as saying in the ESA press release. "With Smile, we are pushing the boundaries of science to answer big questions that have remained a mystery since our discovery over seventy years ago that the Earth lies safely within a giant magnetic bubble."

One of the four most important devices on board Smile, the SXI X-ray telescope, will contribute to this. "The particular technical challenges of this instrument include the exclusive use of European components for all systems and the cryogenic TCS (Thermal Control System)," explains the University of Leicester, which is the overall leader of the SXI project, in its project description.

To ensure reliable cooling of the system, the consortium of FHNW, KOEGL Space and Space Acoustics, led by FHNW Professor Hans-Peter Gröbelbauer, has developed a radiator that reliably cools the camera's two detectors to -110 degrees Celsius. The task of astrophysicist Prof. Dr. Säm Krucker and his FHNW team was to optimize the quality of the images.

According to the FHNW, the expertise of those involved is also in demand in two of the most important ESA projects of the near future: Envision for the exploration of Venus and ARRAKIHS, which is concerned with the exploration of dark matter and the formation of galaxies on a small scale. ce/mm