The mini-satellite Proba 2, an ESA-mission, will be launched in September 2007. Onboard are SWAP and LYRA, two instruments in which the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the SIDC is deeply involved. Belgium will keep an eye on the Sun!
Proba 2, (Nederlandse versie), the successor of Proba, is a mission supported by ESA, the European Space Agency to demonstrate new technology. In fact, Proba stands for "Project of Onboard Autonomy". The satellite will be capable of acting autonomously without the intervention of an expensive ground station. A powerful computer on the satellite will be occupied by these tasks. The two main telescopes are SWAP and LYRA. The SIDC acts as the principal investigator (PI) and is responsible for the scientific exploitation of both instruments. The Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) takes care of the technical construction of SWAP and LYRA.
SWAP will image the complete Sun in EUV (17.5 nm) and is similar to SOHO/EIT but capable of taking images at an higher time-rate. In this way, processes with a shorter timescale can be studied.
LYRA is a Lyman Alpha Radiometer (UV), similar to the solar X-ray flux meter onboard GOES, an American satellite. The special thing about LYRA is that the detector is a diamant based on the "BOLD"-technology which makes the satellite "blind for optical light" and radiation hard.
More info: poster 1 (Dutch) / poster 2 (English)
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