ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission has completed its test campaign in Europe and is now being packed ready for its journey to Cape Canaveral at the end of this month, ahead of launch in February 2020.
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ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission has completed its test campaign in Europe and is now being packed ready for its journey to Cape Canaveral at the end of this month, ahead of launch in February 2020.
The PILOT instrument took off on the morning of the 24th of September from Timmins airport (Ontario, Canada). This third flight of this instrument, on board of a stratospheric balloon, lasted for 25 hours, among which three hours to rise to the ceiling altitude, one hour dedicated to the instrument tuning, and 20 hours of scientific observations at the ceiling (about 38km on daytime and 34km during night). All flight systems and the scientific instrument behaved nominally, and the data produced by the instrument are of very good quality.
On October the 5th and the 6th, IAS will contribute to the « Sciences sur mesure » outreach event organized by CNRS in Gif-sur-Yvette. During this event, researchers, engineers, and technicians from CNRS laboratories will explain the importance of measurements in sciences. This event is organized in the framework of the 80th anniversary of CNRS and of the annual « Fête de la Science » science festival, and follows the recent redefinition of some of the fundamental measurement units.
« Hello, JUICE ? - Hi MAJIS, nice to meet you ! Let’s have fun ! ;-) »: This is the first message that ADS (Airbus Defense and Space), prime contractor of the ESA JUICE satellite, sent to the MAJIS (Moons And Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer) team, hence validating the EM (Engineering Model) stage of the MAJIS spacecraft.
On the occasion of its 80th anniversary, CNRS organizes on 14 and 15 September in Gif-sur-Yvette an outreach event called "Face à l'Univers" (In Front of the Universe). IAS participates to the organization of this event, and will present there many space instruments.