The Solar-A mission

The Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) is developing a satellite dedicated to high-energy observations of solar flares. The Solar-A will be launched in August–September, 1991, from the Kagoshima Space Center on board a M3S-II vehicle. The instrument complement emphasizes hard X-ray and soft X-ray imaging, and contains instruments supplied in part by U.S. and U.K. experimenters. This paper describes the instrumentation and the tentative observing program.     

The INTEGRAL mission

INTEGRAL, the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, to be launched in 2001, is the second medium-size scientific mission (M2) of the ESA long term programme Horizon 2000. INTEGRAL addresses the fine spectroscopy and accurate positioning of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy range 10 keV to 10 MeV. The observational requirements will be met by a payload utilising coded mask imaging in combination with detector pixel arrays (Imaging) and cooled Germanium detectors (Spectroscopy). INTEGRAL is an ESA led mission in collaboration with Russia and USA. Most of the observing time will be made available to the general scientific community.This paper is largely based on the INTEGRAL Phase A study report (ESA SCI(93)1), written by the INTEGRAL Phase A Science Working Team: S. Bergeson-Willis, T.J.-L. Courvoisier, A.J. Dean, Ph. Durouchoux, B. McBreen, N. Eismont, N. Gehrels, J.E. Grindlay, W.A. Mahoney, J.L. Matteson, O. Pace, T.A. Prince, V. Schönfelder, G.K. Skinner, R. Sunyaev, B.N. Swanenburg, B.J. Teegarden, P. Ubertini, G. Vedrenne, G.E. Villa, S. Volonté, and C. Winkler.     

An Interpretation of a Radiation Damage Phenomenon of the Solar-A CCD

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The ARIEL mission reference sample

The ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Exoplanet Large-survey) mission concept is one of the three M4 mission candidates selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a Phase A study, competing for a launch in 2026. ARIEL has been designed to study the physical and chemical properties of a large and diverse sample of exoplanets and, through those, understand how planets form and evolve in our galaxy. Here we describe the assumptions made to estimate an optimal sample of exoplanets – including already known exoplanets and expected ones yet to be discovered – observable by ARIEL and define a realistic mission scenario. To achieve the mission objectives, the sample should include gaseous and rocky planets with a range of temperatures around stars of different spectral type and metallicity. The current ARIEL design enables the observation of ～1000 planets, covering a broad range of planetary and stellar parameters, during its four year mission lifetime. This nominal list of planets is expected to evolve over the years depending on the new exoplanet discoveries.     

The SIMBOL-X hard X-ray mission

SIMBOL-X is a hard X-ray mission based on a formation flight architecture, operating in the 0.5–80 keV energy range, which has been selected for a comprehensive Phase A study, being jointly carried out by CNES and ASI. SIMBOL-X makes uses of a long (in the 25–30 m range) focal length multilayer-coated X-ray mirrors to focus for the first time X-rays with energy above 10 keV, resulting in at least a two orders of magnitude improvement in angular resolution and sensitivity compared to non focusing techniques used so far. The SIMBOL-X revolutionary instrumental capabilities will allow us to elucidate outstanding questions in high energy astrophysics, related in particular to the physics and energetic of the accretion processes on-going in the Universe, also performing a census of black holes on all scales, achieved through deep, wide-field surveys of extragalactic fields and of the Galactic center, and the to the acceleration of electrons and hadrons particles to the highest energies. In this paper, the mission science objectives, design, instrumentation and status are reviewed. PACS: 95.55 – Astronomical and space-research instrumentation 95.85 – Astronomical Observations 98.85.Nv – X-ray     

The THESEUS space mission: science goals,requirements and mission concept

Experimental Astronomy - THESEUS, one of the two space mission concepts being studied by ESA as candidates for next M5 mission within its Comsic Vision programme, aims at fully exploiting Gamma-Ray...     

The SOLAR-A mission: An overview

The SOLAR-A spacecraft is to be launched by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan (ISAS) in August, 1991. As a successor of HINOTORI, this mission is dedicated principally to the study of solar flares, especially of high-energy phenomena observed in the X- and gamma-ray ranges. The SOLAR-A will be the unique space solar observatory during the current activity maximum period (1989–1992). With a coordinated set of instruments including hard X-ray and soft X-ray imaging telescopes as well as spectrometers with advanced capabilities, it will reveal many new aspects of flares and help better understand their physics, supporting international collaborations with ground-based observatories as well as theoretical investigations. An overview of this mission, including the satellite, its scientific instruments, and its operation, is given in this paper. Also the scientific objectives are briefly discussed.After the launch the name of SOLAR-A has been changed to YOHKOH.     

The Soviet ASTRON mission: legacy

2013 marks the 30th anniversary since the launch of Soviet Spacecraft Astron that had been operated for 6 years as the largest ultraviolet telescope during its lifetime. The Astron orbital station was designed for the astrophysical observations. It was launched into orbit by Proton launch system on March 23, 1983. Astron had a 80 cm ultraviolet telescope with mass of 400 kg and a complex of X-ray spectrographs with mass of 300 kg on board as a payload. It’s high apogee orbit (with apogee 200000 km and perigee 2000 km) permitted the influences of the Earth’s umbra and radiation belts to be excluded from the measurements. The main astrophysical results are summarized in this paper.     

The SOHO mission: An overview

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a space mission that forms part of the Solar-Terrestrial Science Program (STSP), developed in a collaborative effort by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The STSP constitutes the first cornerstone of ESA's long-term programme known as Space Science — Horizon 2000. The principal scientific objectives of the SOHO mission are a) to reach a better understanding of the structure and dynamics of the solar interior using techniques of helioseismology, and b) to gain better insight into the physical processes that form and heat the Sun's corona, maintain it and give rise to its acceleration into the solar wind. To achieve these goals, SOHO carries a payload consisting of 12 sets of complementary instruments. SOHO is a three-axis stabilized spacecraft with a total mass of 1850 kg; 1150 W of power will be provided by the solar panels. The payload weighs about 640 kg and will consume 450 W in orbit. SOHO will be launched by an ATLAS II-AS and will be placed in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point where it will be continuously pointing to Sun centre with an accuracy of 10 arcsec. Pointing stability will be better than 1 arcsec over 15 min intervals. The SOHO payload produces a continuous science data stream of 40 kbits/s which will be increased by 160 kbits/s whenever the solar oscillations imaging instrument is operated in its highrate mode. Telemetry will be received by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). Planning, coordination and operation of the spacecraft and the scientific payload will be conducted from the Experiment Operations Facility (EOF) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).     

The Planck Surveyor mission and gravitational lenses

An extremely sensitive all-sky survey will be carried out in the millimetre/submillimetre waveband by the forthcoming ESA mission Planck Surveyor . The main scientific goal of the mission is to make very accurate measurements of the spatial power spectrum of primordial anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation; however, hundreds of thousands of distant dusty galaxies and quasars will also be detected. These sources are much more likely to be gravitationally lensed by intervening galaxies compared with sources discovered in surveys in other wavebands. Here the number of lenses expected in the survey is estimated, and techniques for discriminating between lensed and unlensed sources are discussed. A practical strategy for this discrimination is presented, based on exploiting the remarkable sensitivity and resolving power of large ground-based millimetre/submillimetre-wave interferometer arrays. More than a thousand gravitational lenses could be detected: a sample that would be an extremely valuable resource in observational cosmology.     

The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: scientific payload

The MErcury, Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission will send the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. A miniaturized set of seven instruments, along with the spacecraft telecommunications system, provide the means of achieving the scientific objectives that motivate the mission. The payload includes a combined wide- and narrow-angle imaging system; γ-ray, neutron, and X-ray spectrometers for remote geochemical sensing; a vector magnetometer; a laser altimeter; a combined ultraviolet-visible and visible-infrared spectrometer to detect atmospheric species and map mineralogical absorption features; and an energetic particle and plasma spectrometer to characterize ionized species in the magnetosphere.     

The Soft X-ray Telescope for the SOLAR-A mission

The Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) of the SOLAR-A mission is designed to produce X-ray movies of flares with excellent angular and time resolution as well as full-disk X-ray images for general studies. A selection of thin metal filters provide a measure of temperature discrimination and aid in obtaining the wide dynamic range required for solar observing. The co-aligned SXT aspect telescope will yield optical images for aspect reference, white-light flare and sunspot studies, and, possibly, helioseismology. This paper describes the capabilities and characteristics of the SXT for scientific observing.After the launch the name of SOLAR-A has been changed to YOHKOH.     

太阳爆发探测小卫星高能暴谱仪

太阳爆发探测小卫星(Small Explorer for Solar Eruptions,简称SMESE)是中国法国合作小卫星.SMESE计划在下一个太阳活动峰年(-2011年)发射上天,同时观测太阳上两类最剧烈爆发现象:耀斑和日冕物质抛射(CME),瞄准当代科学的前沿课题,同时兼顾空间天气学的应用需要.高能暴谱仪(High Energy Burst Spectrometer,简称HEBS)是太阳爆发探测小卫星上3大主要载荷之一,采用世界最新高能量分辨LaBr3闪烁探测器,观测太阳10 keV-600 MeV的高能辐射.其能量分辨优于3.0%@662 keV,高于目前通用闪烁探测器的2倍以上,可望在耀斑和CMEs的能量释放,粒子加速,以及耀斑和CMEs之间的关系研究方面取得突破.     

Venus Express—The first European mission to Venus

Venus Express is the first European mission to planet Venus. The mission aims at a comprehensive investigation of Venus atmosphere and plasma environment and will address some important aspects of the surface physics from orbit. In particular, Venus Express will focus on the structure, composition, and dynamics of the Venus atmosphere, escape processes and interaction of the atmosphere with the solar wind and so to provide answers to the many questions that still remain unanswered in these fields. Venus Express will enable a breakthrough in Venus science after a long period of silence since the period of intense exploration in the 1970s and the 1980s.The payload consists of seven instruments. Five of them were inherited from the Mars Express and Rosetta projects while two instruments were designed and built specifically for Venus Express. The suite of spectrometers and imaging instruments, together with the radio-science experiment, and the plasma package make up an optimised payload well capable of addressing the mission goals to sufficient depth. Several of the instruments will make specific use of the spectral windows at infrared wavelengths in order to study the atmosphere in three dimensions. The spacecraft is based on the Mars Express design with minor modifications mainly needed to cope with the thermal environment around Venus, and so a very cost-effective mission has been realised in an exceptionally short time.The spacecraft was launched on 9 November 2005 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, by a Russian Soyuz-Fregat launcher and arrived at Venus on 11 April 2006. Venus Express will carry out observations of the planet from a highly elliptic polar orbit with a 24-h period. In 3 Earth years (4 Venus sidereal days) of operations, it will return about 2 Tbit of scientific data.Telecommunications with the Earth is performed by the new ESA ground station in Cebreros, Spain, while a nearly identical ground station in New Norcia, Australia, supports the radio-science investigations.     

The final phases of the Viking mission to Mars

Of the four spacecraft that the Viking Project put into operation at Mars in the summer of 1976, one continues to acquire data periodically. The missions of the two orbiters were terminated by the depletion of their attitude-control gas: Orbiter 2 in July 1978 and Orbiter 1 in August 1980. Lander 2 was shut down in April 1980 because of degradation of its batteries. Lander 1 is programmed to continue acquiring a modest number of imaging, meteorology, and ranging data periodically until December 1994. During its final year Orbiter 1 continued to produce excellent data from its full complement of instruments—two cameras, two infrared instruments (thermal mapper and water vapor detector), and the radio subsystem. The major emphasis was on photography, with 10,000 images being acquired. These included two very large swaths of high-resolution contiguous coverage of the Martian surface and the completion of the moderate-resolution mapping of nearly the entire surface, as well as miscellaneous other observations. The majority of these images has not been processed and examined, but the others have revealed many previously unobserved features and have greatly enhanced the base for a geological understanding of the planet. The history of Viking mission operations is brought up to date.     

The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: scientific objectives and implementation

Mercury holds answers to several critical questions regarding the formation and evolution of the terrestrial planets. These questions include the origin of Mercury's anomalously high ratio of metal to silicate and its implications for planetary accretion processes, the nature of Mercury's geological evolution and interior cooling history, the mechanism of global magnetic field generation, the state of Mercury's core, and the processes controlling volatile species in Mercury's polar deposits, exosphere, and magnetosphere. The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission has been designed to fly by and orbit Mercury to address all of these key questions. After launch by a Delta 2925H-9.5, two flybys of Venus, and two flybys of Mercury, orbit insertion is accomplished at the third Mercury encounter. The instrument payload includes a dual imaging system for wide and narrow fields-of-view, monochrome and color imaging, and stereo; X-ray and combined gamma-ray and neutron spectrometers for surface chemical mapping; a magnetometer; a laser altimeter; a combined ultraviolet–visible and visible-near-infrared spectrometer to survey both exospheric species and surface mineralogy; and an energetic particle and plasma spectrometer to sample charged species in the magnetosphere. During the flybys of Mercury, regions unexplored by Mariner 10 will be seen for the first time, and new data will be gathered on Mercury's exosphere, magnetosphere, and surface composition. During the orbital phase of the mission, one Earth year in duration, MESSENGER will complete global mapping and the detailed characterization of the exosphere, magnetosphere, surface, and interior.     

The 2010 European Venus Explorer (EVE) mission proposal

The European Venus Explorer (EVE) mission described in this paper was proposed in December 2010 to ESA as an ‘M-class’ mission under the Cosmic Vision programme. It consists of a single balloon platform floating in the middle of the main convective cloud layer of Venus at an altitude of 55?km, where temperatures and pressures are benign (～25°C and ～0.5 bar). The balloon float lifetime would be at least 10 Earth days, long enough to guarantee at least one full circumnavigation of the planet. This offers an ideal platform for the two main science goals of the mission: study of the current climate through detailed characterization of cloud-level atmosphere, and investigation of the formation and evolution of Venus, through careful measurement of noble gas isotopic abundances. These investigations would provide key data for comparative planetology of terrestrial planets in our solar system and beyond.     

The lunar gravity mission MAGIA: preliminary design and performances

The importance of an accurate model of the Moon gravity field has been assessed for future navigation missions orbiting and/or landing on the Moon, in order to use our natural satellite as an intermediate base for next solar system observations and exploration as well as for lunar resources mapping and exploitation. One of the main scientific goals of MAGIA mission, whose Phase A study has been recently funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), is the mapping of lunar gravitational anomalies, and in particular those on the hidden side of the Moon, with an accuracy of 1 mGal RMS at lunar surface in the global solution of the gravitational field up to degree and order 80. MAGIA gravimetric experiment is performed into two phases: the first one, along which the main satellite shall perform remote sensing of the Moon surface, foresees the use of Precise Orbit Determination (POD) data available from ground tracking of the main satellite for the determination of the long wavelength components of gravitational field. Improvement in the accuracy of POD results are expected by the use of ISA, the Italian accelerometer on board the main satellite. Additional gravitational data from recent missions, like Kaguya/Selene, could be used in order to enhance the accuracy of such results. In the second phase the medium/short wavelength components of gravitational field shall be obtained through a low-to-low (GRACE-like) Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (SST) experiment. POD data shall be acquired during the whole mission duration, while the SST data shall be available after the remote sensing phase, when the sub-satellite shall be released from the main one and both satellites shall be left in a free-fall dynamics in the gravity field of the Moon. SST range-rate data between the two satellites shall be measured through an inter-satellite link with accuracy compliant with current state of art space qualified technology. SST processing and gravitational anomalies retrieval shall benefit from a second ISA accelerometer on the sub-satellite in order to decouple lunar gravitational signal from other accelerations. Experiment performance analysis shows that the stated scientific requirements can be achieved with a low mass and low cost sub-satellite, with a SST gravimetric mission of just few months.