1:53 p.m.
The first human spaceflight in a polar orbit (Fram2) will launch next week - Tue April 1
2025 ~ 3UT! The Fram2 astronauts are in a scientific collaboration called the SolarMaX
project with The University Centre in Svalbard and the ARCTICS ISSI group.
The goal of the SolarMaX project is to create an open-source database of aurora
photographs for researchers over a 3-5 day orbit window. This collection will include
videos captured from Fram2, as well as those taken from the ground by anyone on Earth who
can observe the aurora and measurements from scientific instruments.
During the mission, scientists and citizen scientists will monitor conditions for certain
types of what we call ‘weird aurora’. The astronauts will then be alerted if any types are
spotted along their orbit path, so they can be ready. Photos should be submitted to the
Skywarden database for researchers to use and a selection of people who do this will win
prizes that have been to space.
If you have instruments that could be useful for the mission, then turn them into
high-resolution mode and let us know! If you can spread the word about the mission in your
network then that is also great - anyone can take part using a camera or smartphone in any
area with the opportunity for aurora!
Read more information on www.solarmaxmission.com<http://www.solarmaxmission.com> and
contact katieh@unis.no<mailto:katieh@unis.no> with any questions or comments.