Mission Updates

September 2022 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Hannah Mohr
Sept. 23, 2022
 

While summer is quickly ending, progress did not slow down for the IMAP team in August. Several more teams and instruments completed their critical design reviews, and two in-person gatherings occurred. The IMAP Team met at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, CO. to discuss the centers for payload…

August 2022 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Scott Knappmiller, IDEX Lead Instrument Engineer
Aug. 9, 2022

July brought many more steps forward for the IMAP mission. Successful critical design reviews (CDRs) were held for the SWAPI and SWE instruments, as well as for several systems: the electrical power system (EPS), the spacecraft harness system, and the mission operation system’s ground hardware. More teams can move into final testing on…

July 2022 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Sanae Kubota
July 15, 2022

June has been fantastic for the IMAP Team. First, we had the first in-person gathering of the IMAP Science Team in nearly a year. APL was a gracious host for a combined IBEX/IMAP science meeting that began the week, followed by an IMAP instrument and systems science team meeting. Presentations covered a great number of intriguing research…

June 2022 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Jamie Rankin
June 6, 2022

The IMAP payload instruments and systems are developing quickly – much like the growth and transformation that April and May bring each spring. While work continues on each component at the many partner institute homes during our current engineering model build and test phase, it is a…

April 2022 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Kyle Gregory
April 19, 2022

Spring is an inspiring A measure of the flow of events. for the work on our spacecraft at APL and at each instrument home institution. Engineers have been in high productivity as they continue to build and test each component and prepare for their CDRs. More opportunity to work together in person also joyfully continues to increase, adding to the GO IMAPspirit that…

February 2022 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Susan Pope, Payload Project Manager
Feb. 28, 2022

With the new year comes great advancements for the IMAP mission. Many firsts are happening as instrument engineering model (EM) assemblies go from paper to metal and are put through initial testing and calibration. “First light” reports from imagers and detector components have been rolling in weekly, along with pictures of the…

December 2021 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: University of New Hampshire Experimental Space Plasma Lab Team
Dec. 22, 2021

Jon, a heliophysics research scientist who graduated from UNH, had the opportunity to be involved with the IMAP mission from its proposal, conducting simulations and some data analysis for IMAP-Lo, and helping to build the IMAP-Lo lab. “Buying parts, putting in floors, meeting with contractors…the lab is being tented this week. We have…

November 2021 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Matina Gkioulidou
Nov. 8, 2021

Happy November to all our IMAP community! The GO IMAP! excitement increases every week as new milestones are incrementally reached in building and testing each of the specialized components of the IMAP instruments. As we finish laying out the electrical and mechanical systems for each instrument and begin manufacturing,…

October 2021 IMAP Update and Spotlight Feature: Dan Matlin, IMAP Radio Frequency Subsystem Lead
Oct. 4, 2021

Greetings, IMAP friends!

I am absolutely thrilled to bring you news about the next The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. exploration opportunity at the very edge of our solar system. Launching in 2025, the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, will explore and map the boundaries of our The region around the Sun where the solar wind dominates over the interstellar medium.. This modern-day celestial cartographer will also…