A NASA mission to study the heliosphere—the sun's magnetic bubble that shields our solar system—and develop a better understanding of space weather was launched from the agency's Kennedy Space Center along Florida's Atlantic coast on Wednesday morning.
NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission, or IMAP, was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:30 a.m. EDT. Equipped with advanced sensors and detectors, the spacecraft will sample, analyze, and map particles streaming toward Earth from the edges of our solar system and beyond.
The IMAP mission will also help researchers learn more about the solar wind—the continuous stream of particles from the sun—and energetic particles in the heliosphere. These particles can affect human explorers in space and harm technological systems, and they likely play a role in the presence of life in the solar system.
IMAP is flying 10 instruments built by multiple organizations to study the solar wind, interstellar dust and other particles, magnetic fields, and ultraviolet light in space.
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory managed the development phase, built the spacecraft, and houses the IMAP mission operations center. Working with institutions across the mission team, APL integrated IMAP's instruments, subsystems and components, running them through a gauntlet of tests to ensure they would perform successfully in space.
"IMAP will help us better understand how the space environment can harm us and our technologies, and discover the science of our solar neighborhood," said Princeton University professor and IMAP principal investigator David J. McComas, who leads the mission and its international team of 27 partner institutions. "I am truly excited to think about all of the great science and discoveries ahead."
At approximately 8:57 a.m. EDT, flight controllers at APL confirmed the IMAP spacecraft was operating normally and ready to begin its journey to Lagrange Point 1, or L1, approximately 1 million miles from Earth toward the sun. IMAP is expected to arrive at L1, where it will have an uninterrupted view of activity at the interstellar boundary and the sun, in January 2026.
"IMAP demonstrates how APL can employ its unique expertise in space science and engineering in collaboration with partners across the world to develop a first-of-a-kind mission to study the heliosphere," said Bobby Braun, head of APL's Space Exploration Sector.
Data from some of the spacecraft's instruments will support the IMAP Active Link for Real-Time, or I-ALiRT, system, which will broadcast frequent and reliable information that enhances space weather predictions.
In addition to IMAP, the rocket also carried two other spacecraft that will improve our understanding of space weather: NASA's Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1, or SWFO-L1.
"These three unique missions will improve our understanding of the space environment by monitoring the sun's effects from up close out to the edges of the solar system," said Joe Westlake, Heliophysics Division director at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., in a NASA release. "They are joining our existing heliophysics fleet across the solar system, helping to safeguard humanity's home in space and creating a resilient society that thrives while living with our closest star."
Posted in Science+Technology
