HENON: the HEliospheric pioNeer for sOlar and interplanetary threats defeNce
Abstract
The HEliospheric pioNeer for sOlar and interplanetary threats defeNce (HENON) is a pathfinder mission in response to the widely recognized need to make a leap forward in the Space Weather (SWE) forecasting and science. The HENON baseline foresees one 12U CubeSat orbiting along a Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) of the Sun-Earth system, so that the HENON CubeSat will spend a long period of time very far upstream of the Earth (well beyond L1 at least ~0.1 AU). The CubeSat will be equipped with a state of the art radiation monitor, which will provide the crucial measurement of energetic particle spectra, with high angular and energy resolution. This will make HENON the first mission ever providing a real time monitoring of the particle radiation environment in the deep space. The HENON concept can be enhanced by embarking additional payloads tailored for SWE observations, in order to pave the way for forecasting horizons of harmful interplanetary structures (ICMEs, HSSs) in the order of several hours, leading to a quantum improvement of forecasting capability. Moreover, HENON will reach paramount technological objectives as well, as it will fly for the first time ever the unexplored DRO orbits, which are important also in other space contexts, and will demonstrate the capability of the CubeSat technologies in deep space to reach both scientific and operational goals. HENON Phase A/B study is in development within the ESA GSTP program. HENON is part of the ALCOR program of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022AGUFMSH54A..01M