ESA's Sawa nanosatellite will measure how space weather swells the atmosphere

On 12 October in Warsaw, the European Space Agency unveiled the mission patch for Sawa, its second space weather nanosatellite. ESA also celebrated the contract with the Polish prime contractor Creotech.

What Sawa will do

Sawa will fly through the thermosphere and measure it directly. During space weather events this upper layer of the atmosphere heats up and expands, which increases drag on satellites and space debris and changes their orbits. Sawa will also measure Earth's magnetic field. Its data will go into ESA's space weather alerts and forecasting tools.

The name

Sawa is the mermaid of the Vistula River who, in a Warsaw founding legend, becomes the city's guardian. The name suits a mission meant to protect infrastructure.

Timeline

• Built by Creotech in Poland.
• Launch planned for 2029.
• Data will start flowing a few months later through the ESA Space Weather Portal.

Sawa will work alongside ESA's Swing and Aurora-D missions. If they succeed, ESA wants to expand them into constellations so it can measure space weather around the whole planet at once.