The Spacecraft
SOHO has two main parts to it. There is the upper section where all the
solar telescopes and instruments can be found. This is called the
Payload Module .
The lower part is what is known as the Service Module and it does
a whole host of different jobs:-
- There are the
solar panels which provide power for the satellite.
The instruments only use about 400 to 600 Watts of electricity which is
about the same amount of power you need to run a microwave oven !
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- There is a computer which collects all the observations and
- an antenna sends the information back to Earth.
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- A special system controls the temperature of SOHO to stop it
getting too hot or too cold.
- There is a guidence system which notes SOHO's position in space
and keeps it at the correct location between the Earth and the Sun.
SOHO is 4.3 x 2.7 x 3.7 m3 which makes it about the size of a large van. It weighs
about 1861 kg. The instruments weigh 656 kg and there was about 250 kg of fuel
at the time SOHO was launched.
Return to main SOHO page.