NASA CURIE Satellite Launching on First Ariane 6 Flight
Will Measure Radio Waves Coming From the Sun
CURIE, the CUbesat Radio Interferometry Experiment from NASA, is one of the payloads launching on Ariane 6’s first flight. CURIE will measure radio waves coming from the Sun and other radio sources in the sky. Such waves must be measured in space, as they are absorbed by Earth’s ionosphere – a region extending 30 to 600 miles above Earth’s surface composed of ionized (charged) gases and created as solar radiation interacts with the upper atmosphere.
“For a team that is developing a new concept – a formation flying satellite radio interferometer – launching on the inaugural flight of Europe’s new rocket is like a satellite developer’s dream come true.”
David Sundkvist, NASA
CURIE is made up of two spacecraft that will launch bolted together as one, later separating into two in orbit. From their separate vantage points, the satellites CURIE A and B will make it possible to measure the same radio waves from two locations at the same time. Using the technique of radio ‘interferometric analysis,’ the origin of detected radio waves can be reconstructed.
The principal science objective for CURIE is to use radio ‘interferometry’ to study radio burst emissions from solar eruptions, such as flares and coronal mass ejections in the inner heliosphere. These events drive space weather, its influence being felt on Earth and other planets when they occur, in increasing auroral activity and geomagnetic effects.
CURIE will be able to determine the location and size of radio burst source regions and then track their movement outward from the Sun. Such a space-based radio interferometry observatory has long been envisioned, in orbit around the Earth or Moon, or on the Moon’s far side. CURIE will be the mission first of its kind to measure radio waves in the 0.1 – 19 MHz frequency range from space. It will serve as an experimental platform and pathfinder in the development of new space-based radio observation techniques important for our understanding of the heliospheric space weather environment, and the Sun’s impact on the planets of the Solar System.
Beyond its important science objectives, CURIE will also prove that the concept of a dedicated space-based interferometer can be realized using relatively inexpensive CubeSats.
CURIE will launch into a near-Earth circular orbit, flying at an altitude of 580 km above Earth’s surface and outside of our planet’s radio-absorbing ionosphere.
“When a spot on the first flight of Ariane 6 was made available to us, the CURIE team was very excited. It is such a big event in the world of rocketry and space exploration,” said David Sundkvist, principal investigator for the mission. “For a team that is developing a new concept – a formation flying satellite radio interferometer – launching on the inaugural flight of Europe’s new rocket is like a satellite developer’s dream come true.”
Ariane 6 is planned to launch in June-July 2024. It follows the hugely successful Ariane 5, Europe's principal rocket for more than a quarter century, flying 117 times between 1996 and 2023 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.