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Russian scientists to stage experiment on ISS to study Sun, space weather

The equipment will include a telescope and spectrometer to be planted outside the ISS

© EPA-EFE/Peter Komka

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. Russian scientists have made preparations for an experiment called Cortes to study the Sun and forecast space weather with the help of equipment to be planted on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS), the chief of a laboratory at the Lebedev Physical Institute under the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergei Kuzin, told TASS.

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"We’ve been making active preparations for the experiment called Cortes for the ISS. We are through with paper work and now expect a contract for making the equipment," Kuzin said, adding that the application for staging the experiment had been filed nine months ago.

The equipment in question — a telescope and spectrometer to be planted outside the ISS — will allow for conducting spectrographic research, studying fast events lasting several minutes and monitoring the Sun’s atmosphere within a wide range of altitudes. The data gathered by the ISS equipment will be used to make short-term and long-term space weather forecasts."

Kuzin pointed out that in the near future a contract may be signed between Roscosmos and the space rocket corporation Energia on future experiments, including Cortes. If this happens in 2020, the equipment will be ready at the end of 2023 and the experiment may be held in 2024.

At the end of February NASA said that US scientists were going to carry out an experiment to study the atmosphere on the border with outer space for predicting space weather. The experiment is due in 2022.

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