To accommodate schedule changes due to precautions regarding COVID-19, the preliminary design review for NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, has been moved from February to May 2021. Similarly, the launch readiness date is delayed from Oct. 1, 2024, to Feb. 1, 2025.
Over the course of its mission, IMAP will explore and map the boundaries of our The bubble-like region surrounding the solar system inflated by the solar wind, shielding the solar system from interstellar radiation. – the volume of space filled with the wind from the Sun – and study how it interacts with the local The area of galaxy surrounding a solar system which contains nearby stars and the local interstellar medium (ISM). beyond. These boundaries, which offer protection from the harsher Usually refers to electromagnetic waves, such as light, radio, infrared, X-rays, ultraviolet; also sometimes used to refer to atomic particles of high energy, such as electrons (beta-radiation), helium nuclei (alpha-radiation), and so on. of interstellar space, may have played a role in creating a habitable solar system, and are critical in enabling safe human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Designed with 10 scientific instruments to measure a large range of particles and fields, IMAP will investigate how particles are accelerated and determine the The specific components or “ingredients” that make up a substance or type of matter. of particles and dust in our local neighborhood. IMAP also will enable and mature new ways of forecasting The conditions and activity observed in interplanetary space caused by the Sun’s activity, such as solar flares, solar storms, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Severe space weather conditions directed towards Earth can impact infrastructure and technology on Earth, as well as satellites, spacecraft, and astronauts in its trajectory., including geomagnetic storms and Energetic charged particles generated in solar flares and CMEs. Solar cosmic rays are typically lower energy than galactic cosmic rays. Also called Solar Cosmic Rays., through streaming real-A measure of the flow of events. observations to the ground.
IMAP will launch on a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket provided by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California. This launch will include several other Rideshare missions: NASA’s Global Lyman-alpha Imagers of the Dynamic Exosphere, NASA’s Solar Cruiser, NASA's Lunar Trailblazer, and NOAA's Space Weather Follow-On L1.
Learn more on NASA's IMAP blog.
Princeton University professor, David J. McComas leads the mission and an international team of 24 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland builds the spacecraft and operates the mission. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program portfolio. The The study of the Sun and its connection to the solar system, including the physical processes that occur in the space environment. Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the STP Program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.