The first artificial solar eclipse

The takeoff occurred on the 5th from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in India, the powerful PSLV-XL rocket of the Indian organization was the vehicle responsible for taking two spacecraft carefully designed to work in perfect synchronization into space after launch. They separated and positioned themselves with an almost unimaginable precision, maintaining a fixed distance of 150 m between them, although a simple deviation of millimeters could compromise the entire mission.

The spacecraft will play a crucial role in blocking the intense light of the sun by creating an artificial solar eclipse. This shadow will allow the other spacecraft located just behind to directly observe the faint solar corona, the outermost layer of the sun, this region formed by extremely plasma. hot that extends for millions of kilometers in space is practically inaccessible for observation under normal conditions.

Natural total solar eclipses that offer brief moments to study the corona are rare events occurring on average once every 18 months and lasting just a few minutes. Probat-3 promises to change that by enabling the creation of artificial eclipses extending the observation time up to 6 hours per orbital cycle.

The mission's highly ecliptic orbit that will reach more than 60,000 km away from Earth was designed to maximize flight and information efficiency, allowing precise maneuvers and this precision is fundamental to the success of the mission; The spacecraft will not only maintain their impeccable formation, but will also perform advanced tests such as adjusting the distance between them and altering their orientations in perfect synchrony.

This pioneering technology opens doors for future space missions that require high-precision flights and information, simulating the behavior of a single giant ship. If this occurs as planned, the probat-3 will not only unravel the mysteries of the solar corona but will also open the path to technologies that can change our ability to explore the cosmos; More than a mission, this is a unique opportunity to witness how science overcomes barriers and expands the limits of human knowledge.