IMAP will study the protective magnetic bubble that surrounds our planetary system, called the heliosphere, and the particle acceleration that occurs throughout it. Credit: NASA/Princeton/Johns Hopkins APL/Josh Diaz
On Friday, September 15, 2023, the chair of the Standing Review Board announced that the IMAP job successfully passed the SIR requirements to continue to combination and test.
” I am extremely pleased with the entire IMAP group for everyones tough work and determination in getting us to and through this vital turning point,” said David McComas, IMAP objective principal private investigator and Princeton University teacher. “We are now proceeding to spacecraft integration and test, where all of the private subsystems and instruments merge together to produce our complete IMAP observatory.”
The IMAP objective, which will be ready to introduce in 2025, will explore our solar neighborhood, decoding the messages in particles from the Sun and beyond our cosmic shield. The objective will map the borders of the heliosphere– the electromagnetic bubble surrounding the Sun and planets that is pumped up by the solar wind.
IMAP is the fifth objective in NASAs Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program portfolio. The Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, handles the STP Program for the firms Heliophysics Division of NASAs Science Mission Directorate.
Artists impression of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). The mission will help us better comprehend the flow of particles from the Sun called the solar wind– and how those particles interact with area within the solar system and beyond. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton University/Steve Gribben
NASAs IMAP job, targeted at exploring the heliospheres limits, finished an essential advancement phase and is set for assembly and testing.
The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) marked the conclusion of an essential step on the course to spacecraft assembly, launch, and test operations today at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland.
The IMAP group met with an evaluation panel to assess the prepare for integrating all systems onto the spacecraft, such as the clinical instrumentation, electrical and interaction systems, and navigation systems. Successful completion of this System Integration Review (SIR) implies that the job can continue with checking the spacecraft and putting together in preparation for launch. This process is a bit like a thoroughly choregraphed dance where the instruments and support group are delivered to different facilities, evaluated together in chambers in Los Alamos, New Mexico; San Antonio, Texas; and Princeton, New Jersey; and shipped back to be incorporated and evaluated again altogether.
Artists impression of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). The IMAP team met with an evaluation panel to examine the plan for incorporating all systems onto the spacecraft, such as the clinical instrumentation, electrical and communication systems, and navigation systems. IMAP is the 5th mission in NASAs Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program portfolio.