NASA has awarded a contract extension to Stanford University, California, to continue the mission and services for the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument on the agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
The cost-reimbursement, no fee contract extension provides for support, operation, and calibration of the HMI instrument, which is one of three main instruments on SDO. In addition, the extension provides for operating and maintaining the Joint Science Operations Center – Science Data Processing facility at Stanford as well as the HMI team’s support for Heliophysics System Observatory science.
The period of performance for the extension runs Tuesday, Oct. 1, through Sept. 30, 2027. The extension increases the total contract value for HMI services by about $12.5 million — from $173.84 million to $186.34 million.
SDO’s mission is to help advance our understanding of the Sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying how the star changes over time and how solar activity is created. Understanding the solar environment and how it drives space weather is vital to protecting ground and space-based infrastructure as well as NASA’s efforts to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon with Artemis. The study of the Sun also teaches us more about how stars contribute to the habitability of planets throughout the universe.
The SDO mission launched in February 2010 with science operations beginning in May of that year. The HMI instrument on SDO studies oscillations and the magnetic field at the solar surface, or photosphere.
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Jeremy Eggers
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
757-824-2958
jeremy.l.eggers@nasa.gov