Smile payload module travels to China

Following a successful test campaign in Europe, the structural thermal model of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (Smile)’s payload module will soon be delivered to China to complete the qualification of the satellite.

Smile is a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and will aim to build a more complete understanding of the Sun-Earth connection by measuring the solar wind and its dynamic interaction with the magnetosphere.

The payload module recently completed thermal testing and a deployment test of the magnetometer instrument boom at ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands. The module then returned to Airbus in Spain for mechanical testing, completing the environmental test campaign phase that lasted three months.

Integration onto the Chinese platform is expected to begin in early April. Once the complete satellite is finished, it will undergo a comprehensive five month long qualification test campaign including thermal, mechanical, electromagnetic compatibility testing, and magnetic, deployment and functional tests at system level.

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