Intersteller Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP)

This year's STEM Expo will explore NASA's heliophysics mission IMAP!  

See a LIVE behind-the-scenes look at the integration and testing (I&T) for this NASA probe: 

Live from the JHU/APL Clean Room - IMAP

IMAP will explore our solar neighborhood, helping researchers better understand what happens at the boundary of the heliosphere, where the Sun’s protective magnetic influence ends. IMAP will be positioned about one million miles from Earth (at what is called the first Lagrange point, or L1). With its extensive set of instruments, the spacecraft will observe a vast range of particle energies and types in interplanetary space to simultaneously investigate two of the most important overarching issues in heliophysics – the energization of charged particles from the Sun, and interaction of the solar wind with the winds from other stars and other material that fills our galaxy. 

The IMAP spacecraft will be assembled into a complete, cutting-edge science observatory – with 10 instruments – and all the inner systems to make them work. Over the course of the next few months, engineers will install the spacecraft harness, electronics, communications systems, thermal systems, propulsion, batteries, and many more complex systems to make the spacecraft work. 

IMAP will also draw a map of our nearby galactic neighborhood, advancing what we know about neutral atoms and space dust that have traveled through surrounding galaxies and intergalactic space and uncovering clues about our solar system’s origins. 

Learn more about this exciting mission: https://imap.princeton.edu 

Princeton University professor David J. McComas leads the mission with an international team of 25 partner institutions. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland builds the spacecraft and operates the mission. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program portfolio. The Explorers and Heliophysics Project Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the STP Program for the agency’s Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. (source)

If you are a MTI student, mentor, volunteer or supporter and would like to register for the event, please do so by Thursday June 27, 2024. Pre-registration is required and can be done through these forms:

Team Registration Form

Volunteer Registration Form

Many thanks to APL for their continued support and for providing this exciting program.  To learn more about APL’s NASA missions you can visit the APL Civil Space Flight Mission Area website.

Check out the past STEM programs:

2023 MTI STEM Exposition: Robotic and Human Exploration of the Moon

2022 MTI STEM Exposition: Europa Clipper

2020 MTI STEM Exposition - DART

2019 MTI STEM Exposition Parker Solar Probe and DART

2018 Bonus Friday STEM Event New Horizons and Dragonfly

2017 Bonus Friday STEM Event Parker Solar Probe