Two satellites launched into orbit on the first mission to create artificial solar eclipses through precise formation flying in space. Launched on Thursday from India, the pair of satellites will rely on GPS, star trackers, lasers, and radio links, flying autonomously.
Each artificial eclipse is expected to last six hours once operations commence next year, reports EuroNews.
This duration far exceeds the few minutes of totality provided by a natural eclipse on Earth, offering extended opportunities to study the Sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere.
Joe Zender, the mission scientist at European Space Agency (ESA), said via email to EuroNews: “We are a very, happy science team here.”
Designed as a technology demonstration, the two satellites will separate about a month after launch, positioning themselves 150 meters apart in orbit high above Earth. They will align precisely with the Sun, allowing one satellite to cast a shadow on the other.
This alignment requires extraordinary accuracy, within 1 millimeter—about the thickness of a fingernail, according to the ESA.
Each cube-shaped satellite measures less than 1.5 meters across. The shadow-casting satellite is equipped with a disk designed to block sunlight from reaching the telescope on the companion satellite.
This setup mimics a natural total solar eclipse, with the shadow-casting satellite simulating the Moon and the darkened one representing Earth.
ESA’s technology and engineering director Dietmar Pilz said: “This has a huge scientific relevance in addition to testing high-precision formation flying.”
The satellites will follow an elliptical orbit ranging from 600 km to 60,000 km above Earth, completing a full revolution in nearly 20 hours.
During specific orbits, they will spend six hours at the farthest point creating an artificial eclipse. Other orbits will be dedicated to formation flying experiments, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
Initial eclipse data is expected in March, after both spacecraft have completed their testing phase.
