SMILE mission gets £3 million boost

A space mission called SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer), jointly developed by the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences with major UK involvement from UCL, has received additional funding from the UK Space Agency. The £3 million will support UCL researchers and their collaborators in leading the development of a major science instrument for SMILE which is due to launch at the end of 2021. "SMILE is a most innovative space mission dedicated to study the impact of the solar wind on the Earth's magnetic environment. It will explore scientifically what drives space weather and return knowledge that will eventually lead to mitigating its effects," said Professor Graziella Branduardi-Raymont, mission Co-Principal Investigator (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory). The magnetic environment or 'magnetosphere' is a vast region around our planet that protects us from solar wind and cosmic particle radiation. The Earth's magnetosphere is the strongest among all the rocky planets in our solar system and its protective role is thought to have played a key role in the Earth's habitability. SMILE will provide a step change in understanding its behaviour under the impact of the solar wind, and will serve a broad range of research communities in which the UK is world leading, including solar, fundamental physics, heliophysics, and planetary sciences.