(NASA/Dana Chafetz https://bit.ly/43xyxtY)
NASA has approved the MANTIS near-Earth cubesat project, which will go into space in 2026.
The small satellite will study the flare activity of stars targeted by the James Webb Telescope.
The MANTIS (Monitoring Activity from Nearby sTars with uv Imaging and Spectroscopy) project got its name from mantis shrimp that can see in the ultraviolet range. Cool.
It will be a 6U cubesat satellite equipped with two telescopes for detecting low-energy and high-energy ultraviolet radiation.
The project was approved by NASA at the end of May this year, and the agency has scheduled the launch of a cubesat satellite in 2026.
The total cost of the mission will be $8.5 million, and the cubesat will be designed and built at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
The Italian Space Agency and Pennsylvania State University will contribute with the mission too.
The scientific program of the device is designed for one year.
It is planned that it will observe stars that have exoplanets, which are chosen as observation targets for the James Webb Infrared Space Telescope.
MANTIS will investigate stellar flare activity, which should help astronomers get a better picture of how exoplanet atmospheres interact with the radiation from their parent stars.
Sources:
- University of Colorado Boulder: https://www.colorado.edu/today/2023/06/08/new-keen-sighted-satellite-will-view-distant-stars-assist-webb-telescope
- Interesting Engineering: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/85-million-mini-satellite-work-alongside-jwst
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