Swiss satellite ‘Smile’ successfully launched into space

Parts of the Smile satellite were made in Switzerland Keystone-SDA

The solar wind satellite Smile, made with Swiss components, has safely launched into space.

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A Vega-C rocket brought the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer to an altitude of over 700 kilometres above the Earth. Around an hour after the launch, the satellite detached from the rocket and unfolded its solar panels.

“We have a new satellite,” said Säm Krucker from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) to a reporter from the Keystone-SDA news agency. Researchers at the FHNW developed and built important components for the mission.

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“Now comes the coolest part,” said Krucker, who heads the Smile project at the FHNW. Smile will now collect data in space for three years.

Understanding space weather

Smile is a project of the European and Chinese space organisations. The aim of the mission is to better understand – and perhaps even predict – space weather.

The weather in space is determined by solar winds and solar storms, in which charged particles are hurled out of the sun. However, when these particles collide with the Earth’s magnetic field, they not only cause auroras, but also complex interactions.

Satellites can be damaged, navigation systems disrupted and even power grids on Earth can be affected. Smile aims to comprehensively measure these processes.

A cooling system for the telescope was developed, manufactured and tested at the FHNW. Swiss researchers have also contributed software for the mission. They developed algorithms to improve the image quality of the wide-angle camera.

In addition to parts of the satellite, parts of the rocket that carries the satellite into space also come from Switzerland. For example, the tip of the rocket that protects the satellite was manufactured at Beyond Gravity.

Adapted from German by AI/mga

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