The SOLAR  Mission


The COLUMBUS laboratory is the cornerstone of ESA’s contribution to the International Space Station. It is a permanently attached, pressurised laboratory allowing astronauts to work in a comfortable and safe environment. Columbus will support very sophisticated research in weightlessness for at least 10 years by providing accommodation for experiments in the life and physical sciences, space science, Earth observation,and technology domains.

In addition, on the outboardside of laboratory, the Columbus External Payload Facility (CEPF) provides up to four payload platforms for experiments, which are directly exposed to space.

The Laboratory Module has been developed for ESA under the Prime Contractorship of EADS-ST in Bremen, Germany, with a major contribution from Alenia Spazio of Turin, Italy.















The external payloads are mounted on the Columbus External Payload Adapter (CEPA). SOLAR payload is one these external payloads, which the baseline position is the Zenith side.

























COLUMBUS European Module and the External Payloads

The SOLAR payload transportation and mating, from Atlantis Cargo Bay to its final location onto the dedicated CEPF, has been performed by S. Love and R. Walheim during the 3rd EVA on February 15, 2008. During this phase, S. Love was secured on top the SSRMS robotic arm and was holding the SOLAR paylaod by hands

Once installed on the CEPF, the SOLAR payload as connected to its power line (Feeder #1) and  to the TM/TC servicing. Then a functional test was performed succesfully, from the Belgian User Operating Centre: BUSOC, in Brussels (B)























After an outgassing period (several weeks), the Sun tracking by the CPD has been operating and the first solar irradiance measurements has been done by the spectrometers included in SOLSPEC (5 April 2008).


Other link: Columbus Mission Overview


Solar payload has been designed for an orbit operative lifetime of 1.5 years, minimum.


On December 2012, July and December 2013, the International Space Station changed its attitude to meet Solar facility objective. The Solar scientists requested that NASA reposition the station slightly because by having this period of time they could bridge over the two Solar observing visibility windows, allowing them to view the Sun for a full solar rotation without interruption. It was the first time that ISS changed its attitude for scientific requests.




 

Photo ESA

Doc ESA

Photo ESA

Photo ESA

Video NASA

Video ESA

Following an ESA Annoucement Opportunity for COLUMBUS Externally Mounted Payloads, we sent a proposal (# 48-F-SCI), which has been officially retained on December 18th 1997. (lettre_acceptation.pdf)

The funding for this project is totally provided by the French Space Agency (CNES)

The SOLAR Payload consists of 3 instruments of solar science (SOLSPEC, SOVIM, and SolACES), integrated on top of a Coarse Pointing Device (CPD).


The primary objective of the SOLAR mission is the measurements of the solar total and spectral irradiance and its variability with the highest possible accuracy for solar physics and atmospheric applications. For this reason the total and spectral irradiance will be recorded simultaneously in the 16-3100 nm range by three instruments:

- SOVIM is combining two types of absolute radiometers and three-channel filter-radiometers.

- SOLSPEC is composed of three double spectrometers using concave gratings, covering the wavelength range from 165 to 3100 nm.

- SOL-ACES is a four grazing incidence planar gratings to determine the absolute fluxes from 16 to 220 nm.


SOLSPEC and SOL-ACES have been calibrated by using the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) means.


The CPD, composed of a CPD Mechanical Assembly (CMA) and a Control Unit (CU), is able to compensate the changes in the ISS attitude and to point/track the sun with an accuracy of 1 degree and the stability of 0.3 degree over 10s time period.

The SOLAR Payload

The SOLAR payload, associated to the EUTEF payload are integrated into the ICC-L with the COLUMBUS laboratory.

The ICC-L is moved to the pad in order to be integrated inside the Atlantis cargo bay.

Photo NASA

Photo NASA

Photo TAS

Photo TAS

In orbit,  the first activity was  the opening of the Shuttle Cargo Bay doors.

Solar payload was manifested to fly on STS-122 mission.


The launch has been performed successfully on 7 February 2008

STS-122 Logo

Photo NASA

Other SOLAR pictures are available here

ESA/Columbus Logo

Photo ESA

Photo NASA

The Columbus laboratory and its external payloads EUTEF and SOLAR, integrated in the Atlantis cargo bay, spent 3 months on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center (PAD-39A).

Columbus launch (7/02/08)

External Payloads

SOLAR and EUTEF

in Atlantis Cargo Bay

waiting for their installation on Columbus

After the shuttle/ISS docking operation, the Columbus laboratory has been attached to its new home on the Harmony node (February 11th, 2008):

Photo NASA

Photo NASA