The European Space Agency’s science programme committee has approved a joint mission with China to study how the Earth’s magnetic field is affected by the sun.
The decision clears the way for full development of the Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, or Smile, ESA announced on 5 March. This mission is “expected to revolutionise scientists’ understanding of the physical processes taking place during the continuous interaction between particles in the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic shield”, ESA said.
Due to launch in 2023, the mission will be a collaboration with China from the start. ESA worked with China on a previous mission called Double Star, which examined near-Earth space, but that mission began as a China-only initiative. Smile emerged from various joint workshops and a joint call that took place in 2015.
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