Charged Particle-Sensing Instrument Installed on IMAP

An instrument that will collect and analyze ions - charged particles - has been integrated into NASA's IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. This instrument, known as the Solar Wind and Pick Up Ion (SWAPI) instrument, will help scientists understand how ions behave in the protective bubble surrounding the solar system called the heliosphere, helping provide situational awareness of the very nature of space that our satellites travel through.

The Solar Wind and Pick-Up Ion (SWAPI) instrument completed flight model in the Space Physics Lab at Princeton University before shipping to Johns Hopkins APL for integration onto the IMAP spacecraft. Shown is the pickup ion sector. Credit: NASA/Princeton

Using SWAPI and 10 other instrument suites, IMAP will sample, analyze, and map particles streaming to Earth from the edges of interstellar space to help researchers better understand the boundary of the heliosphere. The mission will also help researchers learn more about the generation of cosmic rays in the heliosphere, which can affect human explorers in space and can harm technological systems, and likely play a role in the presence of life itself in the universe. The mission is slated to launch in 2025.

The ions SWAPI will capture include ones from the solar wind - the constant stream of particles from the Sun - as well as one called interstellar pick-up ions, which originate outside the solar system and have been energized by radiation or other particles from the Sun. Both types of ions will allow scientists to study how these charged particles interact at the outer edge of the heliosphere from afar.

The instrument's data will also provide temperature, density, and speed information about the local ion conditions around IMAP. This information will enable space weather to be measured in real-time. Furthermore, the data from SWAPI will increase our understanding of how changes in Sun's behavior affect the solar wind.

The persistence and creativity of the SWAPI team allowed them to successfully iterate the design of the instrument to accommodate the technical challenges posed by the necessary high voltage operations. With SWAPI's integration, IMAP is now equipped with seven out of its total 10 instrument suites.

Princeton student team members with the Solar Wind and Pick-up Ion (SWAPI) instrument in the Space Physics Lab at Princeton preparing the flight model for shipment to Johns Hopkins APL for integration onto the IMAP spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Princeton

The SWAPI instrument was designed and assembled by Princeton University. Princeton University professor David J. McComas leads the IMAP mission with an international team of 25 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory builds the spacecraft and operates the mission. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program portfolio. The Explorers and Heliophysics Project Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Solar Terrestrial Program for the agency's Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

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