The joint European-Chinese Smile mission will launch this spring from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, on a Vega-C rocket.

The rocket will place Smile into an almost-circular orbit around Earth’s poles.

Over the following month, Smile will gradually alter its orbit, firing its engines as it flies over Antarctica. Its final orbit will take it 121 000 km above the North Pole to collect information on Earth’s magnetic field and the northern lights, before flying close over the South Pole to deliver its data.

This special orbit will enable Smile to spend about 80% of its time at high altitude above the northern hemisphere, collecting continuous observations of the northern lights for 45 hours at a time.

After Smile has reached this final ‘science orbit’, it will deploy a three-metre-long boom that carries two magnetometer sensors at the end. These sensors will measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields around the spacecraft.

Known as ‘MAG’, data from this science instrument will be combined with data from Smile’s X-ray camera, ultraviolet camera, and particle detector to give humankind its first complete look at how Earth reacts to streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun.

By improving our understanding of the solar wind, solar storms and space weather, Smile will fill a stark gap in our understanding of the Solar System and help keep our technology and astronauts safe in the future.

Watch Smile’s launch and solar panel deployment (artist impression) here.

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.