This is a huge week for what could be a new era of space exploration.
Two cutting space missions are sitting on a launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base. If all goes as planned, they’ll share a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Sunday night.
They could give us unprecedented new insight into everything from the layout of hundreds of millions of galaxies to how solar wind works.
The nearly half a billion dollar SPHEREx mission will map the sky in 3D, in wavelengths the human eye can’t detect. It could help answer some big questions about space.
"How does the universe work, how did we get here within that universe, and are we alone in that universe?" said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, who is Acting Director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division.
He compares this infrared space telescope with the James Webb Space telescope, which is the largest one ever launched into space. "The way I would describe it is imagine you are a photographer that wants to capture wildlife in a forest. You may take a camera designed to zoom in a tree, or maybe even a nest, or maybe even the nest, and the eggs inside a nest on a tree. That's what James Webb does. What SphereX does is...it's the panoramic lens. It's going to give us not that egg in a nest in a tree. It's going to give us the forest, and all the trees within it. But, for astronomers the trees are galaxies, or other celestial objects, and the forest is the known universe."
Researchers say the mission could answer key questions about ice, and water in space, which in turn could help the mystery about the potential for life in other galaxies.
Phil Korngut is a SphereX instrument scientist with Caltech. He explains the acronym for the mission. "SphereX stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer. It's a space telescope operating in low earth orbit. And, using a technique called linear variable filter spectroscopy, we're going to produce 102 maps in 102 wavelengths every six months over the course of two years," said Korngut.
The second mission on board the SpaceX launch set for Friday night is called PUNCH.
"PUNCH stands for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere," said Nicholeen Viall, who is a Punch Mission Scientist with NASA. PUNCH is a NASA mission, in low earth orbit. It is comprised of four suitcase sizes satellites. Together, they piece together the three dimensional global view of the solar corona, the sun's atmosphere, as it turns into the wind," said Viall.
"So, the PUNCH mission advances the science of heliophysics," said Viall. "It's the study of the sun, and the sun's domain, and how the sun influences the solar system. We do that by imaging the sun's corona, and the solar wind together. PUNCH scientists hope to better understand the entire inner solar system from the sun, through the corona, out into the inner solar system and how that material impacts Earth."
Joe Westlake is director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division. He talks about
the importance of the PUNCH mission. "PUNCH fills in that science puzzle between the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, and the earth. PUNCH is going to actually take that image and really be able to observe everything that's going on in between the sun and the earth."
The launch window for the SpaceX rocket to take off from Vandenberg Space Force Base opens at 7:09 Sunday night. It had been planned for Friday night, but was bumped back two days to allow for more prelaunch preparations.
