NASA’s Newest Mission: IMAP

Sienna Smith ‘27

Editor

NASA has invented a new spacecraft called IMAP, Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, with the purpose of studying space weather near the edge of our solar system. IMAP successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida the morning of September 24, 2025.

While many different spacecraft have contributed to learning about this same area of space, IMAP will be able to actually map the area in greater detail. It can take clear images, help predict when solar storms will impact Earth, and teach scientists more about the heliosphere boundary than ever before.

According to CNN, the heliosphere, which is what the IMAP mission is looking into, is formed from solar wind. The heliosphere acts as a protective layer to prevent harmful cosmic rays from the Milky Way from damaging planets. 

IMAP will use data from particles around the heliosphere in order to map and better understand it. This mission will help scientists discover the details about solar wind formed by the sun and how this reacts with the boundary of the heliosphere in space. The data and new understanding IMAP will bring will allow space weather, which even affects us on Earth, to be better forecasted and more predictable.

NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft has completed a critical design review and is on track for its scheduled 2025 launch.