As a modern-day celestial cartographer, IMAP will also explore and chart the vast range of particles in interplanetary space, helping to investigate two of the most important overarching issues in heliophysics: the energization of charged particles from the sun and the interaction of the solar wind with interstellar space.
With the installation of a charged particle detector on Dec. 3, 2024, all 10 of NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) science instruments have been fully integrated on the spacecraft.
IMAP plans to provide near real-time information about the solar wind to provide advanced space weather warnings from its location at Lagrange point 1, one million miles from Earth toward the sun.
To achieve these goals, IMAP will use 10 science instruments built by multiple organizations and integrated at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. The instruments, listed in order by when they were integrated, are:
