CORONAS-PHOTON Spacecraft (Future)

The spacecraft is designed to investigate the processes of energy accumulation and transformation into the accelerated particle energy during solar flares, to study the acceleration mechanisms, propagation and interaction of high-energy particles in the solar atmosphere, and to study the correlation of the solar activity with physical-chemical processes in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Tasks to be Fulfilled

• Recording the amplitude-time spectra of hard electromagnetic radiation over a wide energy range varying from 20keV up to 2000MeV with a high time and amplitude resolution and detailed research of gamma-ray line region.


• Imaging of the solar disk with a high angular and time resolution in X-ray lines.


• Measuring the linear polarization of X-ray radiation from solar flares.


• Recording solar neutrons.


• Monitoring hard ultraviolet radiation and hard X-rays.


• Recording fluxes, energy spectra and direction-of-arrival of electrons, protons and nuclei and etc.

• Target launch date – 2007


• Spacecraft mass – 1900kg


• Payload mass – 540kg


• Orbit – circular near polar, altitude – 500km, inclination – 82.5º


• Active lifetime – 3 years


• Designer – NIIEM (Istra)

Special Features

• Stable orientation of spacecraft longitudinal axis towards Sun through the spacecraft rotation; orientation accuracy – no worse than 5 arc minutes;


• Accuracy of orientation determination – no worse than 3 arc minutes;


• Accuracy of spacecraft orbital positioning:
  
  • Along orbit — ±1000m;
  
  
  • By altitude and sideward — ±500m;


• Volume of scientific information stored per day – 1 GB.

The CORONAS is the Russian program for studying the solar physics and solar-terrestrial relation using a series of spacecraft that provides for three solar-oriented spacecraft to be placed on near-earth orbit. The CORONAS-PHOTON is the third spacecraft of this series. Two previous missions of the Program are CORONAS-I (launched on 2 March 1994) and CORONAS-F (launched on 31 July 2001).
The CORONAS Project (Complex Orbital Near-Earth Observations of Solar Activity) is aimed at studying two key problems of solar physics – the solar internal structure determination and theory of solar bursts. Each of the spacecraft is equipped with scientific instrument package capable of recording solar data over a wide range of the electromagnetic radiation varying from gamma and X-radiation to radio waves. These three missions of the Project are respectively named as CORONAS-I, CORONAS-F, and PHOTON
For more detailed information on this Project and space telescope system designed for solar research to be installed on board the Russian CORONA-FOTON spacecraft please address the site of the FIAN’s Laboratory for Solar X-Ray Astronomy www.tesis.lebedev.ru