SMILE

Sitting at the intersection between X-ray astronomy and heliophysics, the SMILE mission provides an unparalleled view of Earth’s magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. Selected as a joint mission between the European Space Agency and Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015, SMILE will orbit the Earth in a highly eccentric, high inclination orbit in order to image X-ray emission from Earth’s magnetosheath, UV emission from the aurora borealis, and directly measure the plasma and magnetic fields in the magnetosheath, lobes and plasma sheet. These measurements will enable SMILE to image the interaction of Earth’s magnetosphere with the solar wind and the resultant energy deposition into Earth’s atmosphere.

MSSL has been leading on the SMILE mission since its inception. Prof. Graziella Branduardi-Raymont (UCL-MSSL) and Prof. Chi Wang (CAS) led the SMILE proposal in 2015, becoming mission Co-PIs upon selection.  Dr Colin Forsyth succeeded Prof Branduardi-Raymont in 2024. MSSL leads on the Modelling Working Group (co-lead: Dr Andrei Samsonov), In-Situ Working Group and Public Engagement Working Group. 

MSSL designed and built the Front End Electronics (FEE) for the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI). Heritaged from Plato, this component controls the readout of the CCDs and transfers  science data to the Data Processing Unit. A key element of the FEE is the Event Detection Unit which enables SXI to detect single photon impacts on the CCD, enabling the detection of the low amplitude X-ray signal from Earth’s magnetosheath.

MSSL is also the Co-PI institute for the Light Ion Analyser (LIA, co-PI: Dr. Georgios Nicolaou). Designed and built by the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, LIA was calibrated in the Low Energy Plasma Instrument Calibration facility at MSSL.