ESA & China Begin Testing Joint Spacecraft

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Chinese scientists have collaborated to perform spacecraft-rocket integration tests for their upcoming joint mission.

SMILE (The Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint mission of ESA (European Space Agency) and CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) which is expected to launch April 2025 after series of delays.

[youtube https://youtu.be/mVF2B2WJXBI]

The Mission

During its three-year duration, the mission will investigate the correlation between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere, including its subsequent impact on the ionosphere, as well as study phenomena like coronal mass ejections. It will orbit Earth in a highly inclined, elliptical trajectory, reaching up to one-third of the distance to the Moon at apogee.

The Spacecraft

The SMILE mission will use a 3-axis stabilization system, and is equipped with a 490-newton engine and 1.6 tons of propellant to attain the scientific orbit after launch. It also has two deployable solar arrays, two star trackers, twelve 10-newton thrusters for attitude control, and two antennas to communicate telecommands, spacecraft health data, and scientific data to the ground station.

SMILE's primary objective is to conduct uninterrupted and precise observations of crucial areas in near-Earth space with both remote-sensing and in situ instruments. The spacecraft will contain four instruments: a light ion analyzer (LIA), a magnetometer (MAG), a soft X-ray imager (SXI), and an ultraviolet aurora imager (UVI). The payload module will have the MAG, UVI, and SXI installed, with the MAG sensors positioned 80 cm apart along a deployable 3-meter-long boom. The two LIA sensors will be mounted on the primary spacecraft platform.

SMILE is designed to fit in a fairing of an Ariane 6 or Vega-C rocket.

Mission Delays

The project had previously experienced delays and was initially planned for launch in 2021. However, due to technical difficulties and programmatic changes, as well as the impact of COVID-19, the launch date was pushed back by one year. The ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC) had adopted the revised launch date of end 2023 to mid 2024 in 2019, based on initial studies and programmatic arrangements for the mission. SMILE was subsequently scheduled for launch in November 2024, but will now launch in 2025.

The Critical Design Review is scheduled to take place in mid-2023 to confirm the 2025 launch date.