A spaceship designed and built in the UK is preparing for the first of many flybys of Venus as she heads for the Sun with the intention of unraveling their mysteries.
The Solar Orbiter will use the planet’s gravitational force to bring it closer to the Sun and, at the same time, tighten its orbit to see the star from a different perspective.
The closest approach will take place at 12.39pm UK time on December 27, when the spacecraft will be about 4,700 miles from the top of the Venus clouds.
However, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), the Solar Orbiter will not be able to take any images of Venus as “it has to stay facing the sun”.
But he will use some of the on-board instruments to record the magnetic, plasma and particle environment around Venus as it approaches the planet.
Currently, the spacecraft is about more than 150 million miles from Earth.
It went into space in February this year from the Cape Canaveral site at Nasa in Florida.
We count down the days to our first one #Venus flyby! A close approach (~ 7500km) is scheduled for 12:39 UTC on December 27th, the first of many we kicked into the best orbit for new views of our star! 🛰🟠⤴️ https://t.co/Br48JJebIc#WeAreAllSolarOrbiters pic.twitter.com/unOLryIiA4
– ESA Solar Orbiter (@ESASolarOrbiter) 17 December 2020
According to the ESA, the Solar Orbiter’s orbit around the Sun has been chosen to be “in harmony” with Venus.
This means that the spacecraft approaches the planet every few orbits and uses Venus gravity to change or tighten the orbit.
The next close approach of Venus is expected to take place in August 2021, and each meeting will increase its orbital inclination.
By 2025, the Solar Orbiter will have enough inclinations to take the first ever images of the solar pole regions.
The spacecraft orbits the Sun every five months, and at its closest point it will be only 26 million miles away, closer to the planet Mercury.
During these periods, it is set for several days over the same area of the sun’s surface, as the sun orbits its axis.
This allows the spacecraft to monitor magnetic activity building up in the atmosphere that can cause powerful flames and explosions, giving you a new perspective on the massive storms rising on its surface.
Predicting when these storms will occur could help governments and companies protect these satellites and other communications infrastructure.
Back in July, the Solar Orbiter unveiled the first images of the Sun, taken from 47 million miles of the star’s surface.
These were the closest images ever taken of the Sun, showing “campfires”, or small solar flames, dotted over its surface.
Scientists in the UK helped design four of the 10 instruments on the Solar Orbiter, and Space UK provided £ 20 million in funding for the £ 1.3 billion project.
The design and implementation of the spacecraft was carried out by the aerospace company Airbus in Stevenage.
The mission is expected to last ten years.
As soon as the Solar Orbiter runs out of fuel and power, scientists will lose all contact with the spacecraft.
It will then continue orbiting the sun somewhere between Mercury and Venus as a piece of space debris.