ESA funded EUCLID set to unlock the secrets of the Sun and dark energy

With funding from the UK Space Agency, space scientists and industry partners in the UK are set to benefit from two European Space Agency (ESA) projects - Euclid and Solar Orbiter.

The missions are part of ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and were originally selected from more than 50 missions.

They will be launched between 2017 and 2019. Solar Orbiter has now been officially adopted by ESA and will go forward immediately.

Euclid has been selected but has to complete its study phase before it can be fully adopted in June 2012.

Dr David Williams, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: "With strong UK involvement in these ambitious projects, we are set to maintain our country's position as a leader in space science within Europe.

These exciting missions are a prime example of collaboration between academia and the UK high-tech industry and will not only further our knowledge of space science but could help us unlock some of the greatest mysteries of our Universe."

Solar Orbiter is designed to travel closer to our own star than any previous Sun-watching mission. It will use an elliptical orbit to take it up to the Sun's higher latitudes to image, for the first time ever, the polar regions of our star.

This special path will also allow Solar Orbiter to keep pace with the Sun's rotation so that it can track specific features below it for several weeks at a time.

As it travels around the Sun, bombarded by the harsh solar wind, Solar Orbiter will carry out in-depth studies of the connections between the Sun and interplanetary space that could provide major breakthroughs in our understanding of how the inner Solar System is driven by solar activity.

The unique design of the spacecraft will allow it to withstand the scorching heat on the surface facing the Sun and the cold of space on the opposite surface, which would always remain in shadow.

Professor Tim Horbury from Imperial College London said: "Solar Orbiter is Europe's mission to the Sun. It will give us our first good view of the Sun's polar regions and by travelling closer in than Mercury, it will give us a unique close-up view of the Sun's atmosphere and how it blows off into space, past the Earth and into the far solar system."