Andrei Zhukov

The ASPIICS Coronagraph Aboard the PROBA-3 Mission: the Project and First Results 

Abstract

 PROBA-3 is the next ESA mission in the PROBA line of small technology demonstration satellites that was launched on 5 December 2024. It is a mission dedicated to the in-flight demonstration of precise formation flying techniques and technologies. The PROBA-3 mission consists of two small satellites in a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth. The two satellites will fly in a precise formation, producing a very long baseline solar coronagraph called ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun). One spacecraft carries the optical telescope, and the second spacecraft carries the external occulter of the coronagraph. The inter-satellite distance of around 144 m will allow observing the inner corona in eclipse-like conditions, i.e. close to the solar limb and with very low straylight. The scientific objectives and first results of ASPIICS will be discussed. 

Bio

Andrei Zhukov graduated from the Faculty of Physics of the Moscow State University (Russia) in 1998. He got his PhD degree in 2001 at the same faculty. Since 2001 he works as a researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium. His main scientific interests are solar and heliospheric physics, namely observational and theoretical studies of the solar corona and solar wind, observational studies of connections between solar and interplanetary phenomena (including space weather), and scientific preparation of new space solar instrumentation (coronagraphs, EUVimagers). In 2013 Andrei Zhukov became the Principal Investigator of the ASPIICS coronagraph aboard the PROBA-3 mission of ESA. He is also involved in several other space missions, most notably STEREO and Parker Solar Probe (NASA), PROBA2 and Solar Orbiter (ESA).