Author: Sarah Frazier

NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than September 2025 for the launch of the agency’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) spacecraft. The new date provides additional time for IMAP flight systems preparations prior to launch.

The IMAP mission will study the heliosphere, the Sun’s magnetic bubble that shields our solar system, to better understand the protective boundary. To achieve this, IMAP will sample, analyze, and map particles streaming toward Earth from the edges of interstellar space. The mission also will help researchers learn more about the solar wind — the constant stream of particles from the Sun — energetic particles, and cosmic rays in the heliosphere. These particles can affect human explorers in space, harm technological systems, and likely play a role in the presence of life itself in the universe.

In addition to IMAP, two other spacecraft will launch as rideshare missions:

• • • NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will capture light from Earth’s geocorona, the part of the outer atmosphere that emits ultraviolet light. Studying this will allow researchers to better understand the atmosphere and improve our ability to predict how solar activity can affect the Earth.
    • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1 mission will observe the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, and measure the Sun’s constant stream of particles called the solar wind before it reaches Earth, to monitor the conditions that create space weather.

During their missions, all three spacecraft will orbit at Lagrange point 1, which is one of five areas where the gravity from Earth balances out the gravity from the Sun. Spacecraft that orbit at a Lagrange point need less fuel to remain in that position. Lagrange 1, which is about one million miles from Earth towards the Sun, is an excellent place to observe the Sun and provide advanced warning of space weather conditions headed towards Earth.

The IMAP spacecraft and the two rideshares will launch together on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Princeton University professor David J. McComas leads the IMAP mission with an international team of 25 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, builds the spacecraft and operates the mission. NASA’s IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program portfolio. The Explorers and Heliophysics Project Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Lara Waldrop. Carruthers Geocorona Observatory is a mission of opportunity in the Solar Terrestrial Probes program. As the Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1 mission owner, NOAA provides funds and manages the program, operations, data products, and dissemination to users.

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the launch service for the missions.

NASA and the UK Space Agency have agreed to cooperate on NASA’s heliophysics mission, the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). The agreement, signed Sept. 22, 2021, will allow Imperial College London (ICL) to design and build one of IMAP’s 10 instruments – a magnetometer called MAG – as well as provide ground support and personnel necessary to support the instrument and the IMAP science team.

Scheduled to launch in 2025, IMAP will observe and map the Sun’s heliosphere – the volume of space filled with particles streaming out from the Sun, known as the solar wind – and study how it interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond. The boundary zone at the edge of the heliosphere offers protection from the harsher radiation of interstellar space; it may have played a role in creating a habitable solar system and is critical in NASA’s plans for safe human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

MAG will contribute to our understanding of the acceleration and transportation of charged particles in the heliosphere. It will do this by measuring the interplanetary magnetic field around the spacecraft. From these measurements, MAG will identify interplanetary shocks and measure the waves and turbulences that scatter particles.

MAG will also provide measurements for the IMAP Active Link for Real-Time (I-ALiRT) space weather monitoring service. With I-ALiRT, IMAP will enable new ways of forecasting space weather by streaming real-time observations of conditions headed towards Earth to operators on the ground.

MAG is a dual sensor fluxgate magnetometer and includes electronics, a power supply system, and an on-board computer. The two sensors are located on a boom to reduce the effects of magnetic interference from the spacecraft.

“The UK and the United States are working together on some of the most exciting space missions of our time, from the Mars Perseverance rover to the James Webb Space Telescope,” said Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency. “There is still so much we don’t know about the Sun and the behaviour of phenomena like the solar wind. This new partnership will help NASA answer some of these questions, using the expertise of scientists at Imperial College London. It is an excellent example of the importance of international collaboration in the study and exploration of our solar system.”

“IMAP will be doing some really exciting science that neatly fits with expertise we have at Imperial, both for understanding how particles get accelerated to the highest energies, and how our Sun interacts with our neighbourhood in the galaxy,” said Science Lead for MAG, Professor Tim Horbury from the Department of Physics at Imperial College London.

“The rest of the IMAP team and I are so pleased to have this partnership with the UK Space Agency and Imperial College London” said Professor David McComas, the IMAP principal investigator. “International collaboration such as this makes our mission even stronger.”

David McComas of Princeton University leads the IMAP mission and an international team of 24 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, will build the IMAP spacecraft and operate the mission for NASA. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program portfolio and newest addition to NASA’s fleet of heliophysics spacecraft. The Heliophysics Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the STP Program for the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.