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ESA’s Tigers on prowl for solar corona’s secrets

11 December 2009

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An external coronagraph is due to fly on the formation flying mission Proba-3, revealing normally unseen sections of the solar corona

Credits: ESA

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StarTiger team member at work in the LAM cleanroom. Instrumentation is being set up on an optical bench. In the background can be seen the folding mirror. Simulated sunlight will be shone from the optical bench through an occulting mask (simulating the occulter spacecraft blocking the solar disc) onto the mirror, then reflected back to the coronagraph instrument.

Closing in on the Sun’s corona

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The two-satellite coronagraph will create a perpetual eclipse for observations of the solar corona. The first 'occulter' spacecraft casts a perfectly controlled shadow onto the face of the second, carrying the mission instruments. Proba-3 will be the first mission to fly such a 'giant external coronagraph'.

Instrument taking shape

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A diagram of the intended experimental setup on its optical bench: a Sun-simulating LED shines a light beam through an occulting mask onto a distant mirror, then is reflected back towards the coronagraph instrument, also located on the optical bench.

About StarTiger

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StarTiger, a pioneering ESA initiative in technology R&D

StarTiger is an acronym for ‘Space Technology Advancements by Resourceful, Targeted and Innovative Groups of Experts and Researchers’, a pioneering European Space Agency initiative under the Agency's Basic Technology Research Programme (TRP) to facilitate technological breakthrough and innovative research

Credits: ESA / Rutherford Appleton Laboratory