PUNCH Mission:
NASA is gearing up for a new and first-of-its-kind solar mission called PUNCH mission that will closely observe the solar atmosphere.
- The Polarimetry to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will be launched by SpaceX .
- It will be a constellation of four, suitcase-sized satellites each weighing about 64 kg sent to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
- It will have three Wide Field Imagers (WFI) and one Narrow Field Imager onboard. Once every four minutes, each of the four cameras will capture three raw images using different polarising filters.
- In addition, each camera will capture an unpolarised image once every eight minutes.
- It is the first time that a solar mission has been specifically designed to make use of the polarisation of light to measure the corona and solar wind, that too, in 3D.
- It will provide scientists with new information which could lead to more accurate predictions about the arrival of space weather events on Earth and impact on humanity’s robotic explorers in space.
- It will measure polarised light using polarising filters, enabling scientists to look into the inner solar system.
- PUNCH’s four-camera setup will operate as a single, virtual instrument to generate large-scale imagery data, making it a unique information-loaded 3D image of the solar corona.
- Time Period: The expected mission life is two years.
