So an eclipse is coming next, How could we see, appreciate
or at least have an image of it? We have indeed appreciated it since yesterday November 13th, but how can we have access to this valuable information? The answer is the Proba-2’s SWAP imager.
The Proba-2’s SWAP imager is a spacecraft that is part of
the Technology Demonstration Programme. The TDP is in charge of demonstrating
new technologies and scientific breakthroughs.
This spacecraft is in orbit
since 2nd November 2009 from the Plesesk Cosmodrome, Russia. The Proba-2’s
SWAP imager started picturing the sun in the same month of its launching and
has been operating since then. The image capture results even better than those
in specialized astronomical centers on earth or by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA).
This spacecraft was not only destined for taking pictures of
the universe, but also for testing new experiments and technology that has to
be tested in orbit given the high risk of some technologies to be tested on the
soil of the planet.
Satellites such as the Proba series increase the possibility
to test due to the fact that the devices it is equipped with are quite enough
for technologies testing.
Let’s go back a bit to the picturing featuring of this apparently
amazing device. Wouldn’t you think this could be a device for espionage? Think
of the country that developed this satellite and the history between this country and his twentieth-century rival: U.S.
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