NASA selected the mission concept to research how space weather and dynamics within Earth’s atmosphere affect the space environment and help improve forecasting capabilities for impacts on critical technology, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and low-Earth orbit satellites, as well as astronauts in space.
The DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmospheric and Ionosphere Explorer) mission will carry out the mission. Enter stage B Development, which includes planning and design of flight and mission operations. It will use two identical satellites to study how changes in Earth’s lower atmosphere affect our planet’s upper atmosphere, where space weather manifests itself.
“NASA is strengthening America’s leadership as a space weather prepared nation, and by providing new insights into Earth’s atmosphere, we can better predict and prepare for impacts to our daily lives on Earth and in space,” said Nikki Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “As NASA sends astronauts beyond Earth’s magnetic shielding to the Moon, Mars and beyond, DAPHNE will join NASA’s science fleet strategically located across the solar system to provide data that will help mission planners predict and mitigate the effects of space weather for the benefit of all.”
The high-yield, low-risk concept of the DAPHNE mission will provide coordinated, multi-point measurements of neutral winds, temperature and composition in the thermosphere. The ionosphere and thermosphere regions are where Earth’s neutral atmosphere transitions into the ionized plasma in space. In this thin crust surrounding the planet, the atmosphere is in constant motion, shaped by solar activity and changes in the lower atmosphere and near-Earth space.
Fundamental observations and physics insights from the DAPHNE mission will include lower-atmospheric energy data to enhance space weather predictive capabilities. The mission is led by Amy Merkel of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
The mission will undergo a confirmatory review in 2027, which will evaluate the progress of the mission and the availability of funds. If confirmed, the total estimated cost of the mission, excluding launch, will not exceed $250 million in fiscal year 2023, with the mission scheduled to launch no later than 2029.
The DAPHNE mission was proposed as a conceptual study in response to the announcement of opportunity for the DYNAMIC (Dynamic Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling) mission. Funding and administrative oversight for this mission is provided by the Solar Ground Probes Program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
For more information about NASA’s heliophysics missions, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics
-end-
Abby Intranet/Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
[email protected] / [email protected]
