The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission arrives at its next close approach to the sun on 12 October 2022 at 19:12 UTC (21:12 CEST). This sequence of images shows the progress of the ESA/NASA spacecraft as it heads inwards on its voyage of discovery. The sequence begins on 20 September and finishes on 10 October.

The sequence was taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) using the Full sun Imager (FSI) telescope, and shows the sun at a wavelength of 17 nanometers. This wavelength is emitted by gas in the sun's atmosphere with a temperature of around one million degrees. The color on this image has been artificially added because the original wavelength detected by the instrument is invisible to the human eye.

So much of modern society relies on spacecraft in orbit around Earth to provide essential communications and navigation. Understanding more about the sun and the "space weather" it generates will help companies operate their satellites around Earth safely and securely.

Micrometeorites are a potential hazard for any space mission, including NASA's Mars Sample Return. The tiny rocks can travel up to 50 miles per second. At these speeds, "even dust could cause damage to a spacecraft," said Bruno Sarli, a NASA engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Sarli leads a team designing shields to protect NASA's Mars Earth Entry System from micrometeorites and space debris. Recently, he traveled to a NASA lab designed to safely re-create dangerous impacts to test the team's shields and computer models.

Set far away from residents and surrounded by dunes, the Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has supported every human spaceflight program from the Space Shuttle to Artemis. The lab also supports testing for the International Space Station, Commercial Crew, and Commercial Resupply programs.

The lab uses two-stage light gas guns to accelerate objects to speeds that simulate micrometeorite and orbital debris impacts on spacecraft shielding. The first stage uses gun powder as a propellent the way a standard gun does.