A team of UK researchers, including Professor Lucie Green from University College London, are pioneering a revolutionary spacecraft mission known as MESOM. This innovative project aims to create prolonged total solar eclipses in space, offering scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study the sun’s atmosphere and better understand the mechanisms behind space weather.
The MESOM mission’s unique trajectory, enabled by the intricate gravitational interplay between the Earth, sun, and moon, will allow for eclipse events lasting up to 48 minutes – far exceeding the brief 7.5-minute maximum duration observed on Earth. This extended observation window will provide invaluable insights into the physical processes driving solar activity and its impact on modern technologies, ultimately leading to more accurate space weather forecasting.
Beyond the Solar Observation Limit
With MESOM, we are taking a giant step towards the enigmatic problems of Solar corona and elucidate the arcane phenomenon underlying it.
Space-based instruments currently have sufficient sensitivity only to the outermost regions of the solar atmosphere where flares and coronal mass ejections originate.
The MESOM team will create total solar eclipses of months long duration in space that will enable the capture of needed high-quality coronal images and measurements for these significant unsolved research problems.
These data are key to allow scientists to constrain and improve physical models of the processes that drive space weather, thus leading to improved forecast and monitoring for better risk assessment and mitigation due to solar events on today’s highly technology dependent society.
Firing Up the Space Explorers of Tomorrow
But MESOM desires to go beyond its scientific intent and engage the public.
The Sun Professor Lucie Green adds: “All of the images and data from the mission will be made public and available almost in real time to anyone who wants to see them, so you will also have a front-row seat for all the wonderful sights we hope to reveal about eclipses.
This ease of access could not only inspire the public, but also help to galvanize a new generation of space fans — and hopefully some future scientists and engineers to boot.
The MESOM team seeks to provide this rare chance for all to participate in the marvels of our solar system, and instill an improved appreciation for space exploration developments and the significant impact they contribute to illuminating our universe.
Protecting Our Common Future recursive function
Space weather is expected to pose a stinging risk in coming years as we become even more dependent on wireless technologies and satellite-based services. Say solar flares and coronal mass ejections would strike power grids, satellite communications and other essential systems modern society relies on.
Through the MESOM mission, we can predict solar flares and geomagnetic storms more accurately with timely forecasts, decreasing these risks.
To uncover this behaviour within the Sun’s atmosphere and understand why it happens we must gaze directly into its splendour with MESOM to better forecast, prepare for, and develop defenses to space weather that can be so terribly destructive.
That means that the successful completion of this mission will mean yet another wager on our technological future is resolved in favor of mastery over the capricious forces of our nearest star.
