Explorer: IBEX (SMEX 10)

The IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) has the sole objective of discovering the global interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium.

IBEX achieves this objective by globally imaging Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs) that are produced by plasmas beyond the Termination Shock, the closest of the inferred interstellar boundaries at the outer edges of our heliosphere. These groundbreaking, high sensitivity ENA observations are achieved with minimal risk using two very large aperture ENA cameras on a simple sun-pointed, spinning spacecraft. It will use two ENA imagers, one for high energy (IBEX-Hi) and one for low energy particles (IBEX-Lo), and will orbit the earth beyond the magnetosphere to allow it to detect and map out the distribution of energetic particles that are created in the shock region between the solar wind and the interstellar medium, and eventually reach the vicinity of the Earth.

IBEX will be boosted by a Pegasus-XL with an additional Star-27H (TE-M-1157) solid motor fourth stage to a an orbit with an apogee of around 320000 km, and then use onboard hydrazine propulsion to raise the perigee to 7000 km.

Last update: 27.09.2009
Contact: gunter.krebs@skyrocket.de
© Gunter Dirk Krebs