The magnetospheric mission
Double Star ( Shuang-Xing )
is a Chinese - European project agreed between European Space Agency
ESA
and Chinese National Space Administration
CNSA .
The mission constitutes of two spacecraft TC-1 and TC-2 (Tan-Ce,
i.e. Explorer) and cooperates with the
ESA-CLUSTER
mission. Thus 6-point sounding of Earth's magnetosphere is provided, as CLUSTER already operates with four satellites.
In parallel with the Chinese scientific instruments, the payload of TC-1 and TC-2
includes also European scientific instruments. With exception of NUADU,
the EU-instruments are inherited from the Cluster mission (the spare models).
The Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imager NUADU
( NeUtral Atom Detection Unit ) is installed onboard of TC-2 and provides panoramatic imaging of the ENA-emitting magnetospheric regions,
particularly the ring current.
NUADU was developed specifically for operation on board of the TC-2
in the frame of European - Chinese cooperation agreed among Laboratory of Space Technology ( P.I. Susan McKENNA-LAWLOR) at National University of Ireland
STIL-NUIM in Maynooth, Swedish Institute of Space Physics
IRF
in Kiruna and Center for Space Science and Applied Research
CSSAR
in Beijing.
The project also cooperates with Johns Hopkins University - Applied Physics Laboratory
JHU-APL, Maryland, USA,
aiming for parallel two-point (stereo) ENA-imaging in cooperation with the NASA-IMAGE satellite.
The Department of Space Physics IEP-SAS has participated on NUADU development and construction
in the frame of scientific-technical cooperation between IEP-SAS and STIL-NUIM, Maynooth, Ireland.
More popular about the project (in Slovak only):
Dvojhviezda
- magazine Plus7dní 47/2004 (pdf 1.7MB).
Dvojhviezda
- original version (pdf 1MB).
Môžeme pozorovať kozmickú plazmu?
- magazine for science and technology QUARK 7/2005.
