The SOLARIS Solar Polar Mission: A Small Spacecraft on a Big Mission

Solar and Heliospheric physics has experienced a golden age of discovery over the past 20+ years, and the launch of Parker Solar Probe and upcoming launch of Solar Orbiter promise to add exciting new observations and insights into our understanding of the Sun-Heliosphere system. So what is next?

I will discuss the scientific drivers and mission concept for a focused, deep space smallsat mission to fly over the solar poles at 75 degrees inclination to complement these current and future missions. Such a solar polar mission is achievable now with existing launchers and technology, and can address key outstanding, breakthrough problems in solar physics, and fill the holes in our scientific understanding that will not be address by these bigger missions. Moreover, such a paradigm-breaking mission is capable of providing “enabling” observations for Space Weather research (e.g. polar view of CMEs), as well as the potential to open fundamentally new frontiers through discoveries enabled by this solar polar viewpoint.