NASA’s heliophysics mission, the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, is now ready to transition to the assembly, testing and integration phase from the development and design stage, following the completion of Key Decision Point D.
The space agency said Thursday IMAP is designed to study the heliosphere—the protective magnetic bubble that surrounds the solar system—and provide insight into collisions of the solar wind and interstellar space materials.
Positioned about one million miles from Earth, IMAP and its instruments will help researchers establish the heliosphere’s boundaries by collecting and studying the particles that make it through the magnetic bubble.
The mission is led by principal investigator and Princeton University professor David McComas and its development and operation is handled by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. It is expected to be launched in late May 2025.
IMAP is part of NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes Program portfolio, which is managed by the Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
