The four Cluster satellites

Mission Objectives

Cluster II is part of an international collaboration to investigate the physical connection between the Sun and Earth. Flying in a tetrahedral (triangular pyramid) formation, the four spacecraft collect the most detailed data yet on small-scale changes in near-Earth space and the interaction between the charged particles of the solar wind and Earth's atmosphere. This enables scientists to build a three-dimensional model of the magnetosphere and to better understand the processes taking place inside it.

Mission Name

The name Cluster was chosen because of the way the four spacecraft will fly in a group around the Earth. When studies demonstrated that it would be possible to reuse some parts and to fly four spacecraft which were almost identical to those which were lost, the replacement mission was named Cluster II.

Spacecraft

Instruments

Each of the four spacecraft carries an identical set of 11 instruments to investigate charged particles, electrical and magnetic fields. These were built by European and American instrument teams led by Principal Investigators. 

Orbit

Elliptical polar orbit, 19 000 to 119 000 km, 57 hour period.

Operations Centre

• Spacecraft operations centre: European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Germany.
• Ground station: Villafranca and Maspalomas, Spain.
• Science operations centre: Joint Science Operations Centre at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK.