Successfully launched three satellites to study the Earth's magnetism - The País.com (Spain)

Three identical satellites, nearly 500 kilos each, were launched on Friday successfully into space in orbit to form a constellation. Measured, flying in formation, terrestrial magnetism. In addition, data taken in the upper atmosphere, which will allow deeper understanding of the environment of the Earth and the influence of the Sun is the Swarm mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and its launch was made today at 13.02 (GMT) from the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome, about 800 kilometers north of Moscow on a Rockot rocket, an old converted intercontinental ballistic missile and optimized to put satellites in low orbit. At 1440 hours, the controllers of the mission have confirmed the reception of signals from each of the three satellites in orbit and position, dismissing as “resounding success” pitch. Three satellites have left staying on top of the rocket then separated in space serving a maneuver planned millimeter and placed each in its precise position of the flight configuration.

ESOC, the control center flight in Darmstadt (Germany) have followed the early stages of the launch and implementation of the automatic sequence into orbit, including the sending of the first signs of the three satellites (first two of them and shortly after the third), before taking direct control of the mission. A critical phase is the deployment of a long pole in each of the Swarm needed to collect data on their end because the magnetometers are installed. The deployment of the masts is scheduled for later today, but all the initial commissioning phase orbit lasts three days. “For us, the signal acquisition marks the start of the mission and is the crucial moment for which we’ve been training,” Juan Piñeiro had anticipated, Chief Operating Swarm.

Swarm are identical and will work in nearly polar orbit: two of them at 460 miles above the Earth’s surface (which will become just 300 at the end of the mission) and the third up to 530 kilometers and with a slightly different slant. The game of the orbits, carefully calculated, and the instruments that carry three satellites optimize the data collection program of the magnetic signal.

Each

Swarm , built by Astrium, has a mass of 472 kilos (106 are propellant) and measures nine meters in length (including a four-foot mast is deployed in orbit), 1 5 meters long and 0.85 high. Its design and construction has been a challenge for engineers as they have had to meet requirements exquisite protection against magnetic fields that affect their sensitive detectors. They have no magnetic material having no iron, are made of carbon fiber and have been avoided in the mounting materials as adhesives which may contain ferrous impurities. On board are two different magnetometers, an instrument for measuring the electric field and an accelerometer, GPS receiver and also the sensors reference stars. The total cost amounts to 220 million euros, including the rocket, plus 30 million operation during the four years of operation envisaged.

After the space launch, mission experts take three months to make the tests and calibrations before starting work with the Swarm flotilla.