| | |  | Ceremony for the International Academy of Astronautics Laurels 2010 | |
Laurels for Cluster-Double Star teams
28 September 2010
ESA’s Cluster and China’s Double Star have been awarded the Laurels for Team
Achievement by The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). Between 2004
and 2007, the two missions returned fundamental new insights into magnetic
physics, and built a bridge for future collaborations.
The award ceremony took place in Prague, Czech Republic, on 26 September, during the International Astronautical Congress. ESA’s Cluster mission comprises four identical spacecraft that were launched in 2000. Four spacecraft is the smallest number that are needed to monitor three-dimensional changes in Earth’s magnetic field as it is buffeted by the constant wind of particles from the Sun.
The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA)’s Double Star Programme consisted of two spacecraft launched in 2004. Together with Cluster, the spacecraft provided the first six-point measurements of Earth’s magnetic field, our principal line of defence against solar storms and other space weather.
The combined missions made significant discoveries such as the extent of oscillations in the tail of Earth’s magnetic field, the size of ‘density holes’ in the solar wind that appear to move upstream, and the details of the fundamental process known as magnetic reconnection, which is vital to understand if we are ever to build commercial nuclear fusion reactors. As well as studying Earth’s environment, on 27 December 2004 Cluster-Double Star detected a starquake on a distant neutron star that sent a wave of magnetic energy hurtling across 50,000 light-years of space.
“By coordinating the science operations of the Double Star programme with the Cluster mission, Chinese and European scientists were able to obtain results that were impossible to achieve with the missions independently. We are honoured that this close team work has been so highly rewarded,” says Philippe Escoubet, Cluster and Double Star mission manager for ESA.
| | | Double Star-Cluster win Team International Academy of Astronautics Laurels |
The Laurels Team Achievement Award was established in 2000. Previous recipients include teams from the Mir Space Station, the Space Shuttle, SOHO and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Chinese Double Star Programme was the first major ESA-CNSA space science collaboration. “The Double Star mission fostered a strong scientific link between Europe and China. Its importance for future collaborations between China and ESA cannot be understated,” says Karl Bergquist, administrator, ESA International Relations department at ESA HQ.
ESA provided eight European-built instruments for Double Star and ground station support. The Chinese National Space Administration was responsible for all the other systems in the programme.
“The Double Star programme was highly beneficial for Europe and China. It has not only boosted the scientific achievements of both missions but also built a solid scientific and engineering bridge between Europe and China,” says Ji Wu, Center for Space Science and Applied Research Director.
“I am very pleased to see our cooperation with the Cluster team being acknowledged by this award. It opened a new era in the study of the magnetosphere with coordinated multiple spacecraft,” says Professor Liu Zhenxing, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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