NASA’s new Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) mission, which is scheduled to launch no earlier than July 2023 aims to help scientists understand the complex relationship between the sun’s activity and a host of dangerous phenomena around Earth called space weather. The mission selection comes amid a burst of solar science and an emphasis on missions that incorporate space-weather prediction into plans for human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit. Hello, SunRISE. This new @NASASun mission will study the causes of solar particle storms — giant surges of solar particles that erupt off the Sun. Understanding such storms can help protect astronauts traveling to the Moon & Mars. About the mission: https://t.co/zWT8ZDbGj1 pic.twitter.com/loW2GSaxy9 — NASA (@NASA) March 30, 2020 “We are so pleased to add a new mission to our fleet of spacecraft that help us better understand the sun, as well as how our star influences the space environment between planets,” Nicky Fox, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, said in a NASA statement. “The more we know about how the sun erupts with space weather events, the more we can mitigate their effects on spacecraft and astronauts.” The six telescopes that make up the mission are tailored to study the radio waves that the sun ejects during solar particle outbursts. In particular, SunRISE will target outbursts called coronal mass ejections, which can throw massive amounts of plasma, the soup of charged particles that makes up the sun, across the solar system. The toaster-sized satellites will spread out across about 6 miles (10 kilometers), orbiting Earth at an altitude of 22,000 miles (35,000 km). That orbit will keep SunRISE well above the ionosphere, which blocks radio waves of the relevant frequencies from reaching Earth. From that perch, the flock of cubesats should be able to map the influence of the sun’s magnetic field across space. They should also be able to gather the data scientists need to understand how different parts of a coronal mass ejection dramatically speed up and which such events are accompanied by bursts of radiation, which are vital clues for space-weather prediction. The mission will also study a part of the sun’s spectrum that can’t be seen on earth due to the ionosphere. It will also help provide information that Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, and the ground-based Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope can’t get. During the 12-month mission, the mission will have a near-continuous collection of data. But there will be brief interruptions for telecommunications, orbital corrections, and reaction wheel desaturation.