NASA SunRISE Mission To Study Giant Solar Particle Storms

NASA is gearing up for another mission and this about studying the Sun. The new Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment or simple the NASA SunRISE mission is set to study how the Sun creates and releases Giant Solar Particle Storms. The mission also aims to give a better insight for other missions to the Moon and Mars.

source  

NASA SunRISE Mission Approved

Technically, the NASA SunRISE mission was picked out back in 2017 as part of the Mission of Opportunity program as apart of the Explorers Program, to conduct an 11-month concept study. Now, NASA has awarded $62.6 million to design, build, and launch the SunRISE mission with a launch date scheduled for July 2023.

"We are so pleased to add a new mission to our fleet of spacecraft that help us better understand the Sun, as well as how our star influences the space environment between planets," said Nicky Fox, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division. "The more we know about how the Sun erupts with space weather events, the more we can mitigate their effects on spacecraft and astronauts."

Purpose Of NASA SunRISE Mission

Going into the details, the NASA SunRISE mission comprises of six CubeSats using the 6U configuration. At the same time, the SunRISE mission is only possible with the success of the Mars Cube One (MarCO) and the DARPA High-Frequency Research (DHFR) as these will demonstrate technologies that will be used in SunRISE.

For instance, the NASA SunRISE mission will use the software-defined radios, as well as GPS on CubeSats.The CubeSats will be used as one very large radio telescope and will use radio images of low-frequency emission from solar activity. They will then send down the information via the Deep Space Network to create a 3D map to pinpoint the location of the giant particle burst.

Additionally, SunRISE will also study a part of the Sun's spectrum that can't be seen on earth due to the ionosphere. It will also help provide information that Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, and the ground-based Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope can't get.