Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S)

The ASO-S mission aims at exploring connections among solar magnetic field, solar flares, and CMEs. ASO-S mission has three payloads onboard: the Full-disk solar vector MagnetoGraph (FMG), the Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope (LST), and the solar Hard X-ray Imager (HXI). They are proposed to measure solar magnetic field, to observe CMEs and solar flares. The unique combination of these payloads allows simultaneous observations of vector magnetic field of the full Sun, imaging spectroscopy at high energies of solar flares, formation and evolution of solar flares and CMEs on the disk and in the inner corona. It will not only advance our understanding of the underlying physics of solar eruptions, but also help to improve forecast capability of space weather.

ASO-S is formally approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) under the Strategic Priority Research Program on Space Science in June 2017. At 07:43:55 Beijing time on October 9, 2022, the satellite is launched with the CZ-2D rocket. The nominal mission life is 4 years.

According to the scientific objectives and tasks of the mission, in order to obtain as much observation time as possible, the ASO-S satellite adopts a sun synchronous orbit (SSO) with an altitude of about 720 km and an orbital period of about 99 minutes. It has an inclination angle of around 98.2 degree. The satellite will go through the shadow of the Earth between middle May and August with a maximum eclipse time of 18 minutes. The spacecraft points to the Sun with the three axes stabilized.