Davide Calcagno, Argotec
HENON (HEliospheric pioNeer for sOlar and interplanetary threats defeNce) is a Space Weather mission conducted by a consortium led by Argotec under European Space Agency contracts within the General Support Technology Programme through the financial support of the Italian Space Agency within the ALCOR Programme.
The Project is currently in its phase C, with an expected launch date in Q4 2026.
HENON is mainly targeted at demonstrating the provision of alerts upon detection of potentially harmful Space Weather phenomena, namely Solar Energetic Particles and interplanetary perturbations such as High-Speed Streams and Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections. HENON will operate in a Sun-Earth Distant Retrograde Orbit, never explored before, which provides a favourable relative position of the Spacecraft with respect to the Sun and the Earth to perform both scientific measurements and alert provision.
Significant challenges lie within this mission, including the transfer to the operative orbit, performed with on-board electric propulsion, the ability to operate nominally in extremely harsh conditions, such as during Solar Events, the high power demand due to communications and propulsion needs, as well as the simultaneous scientific measurements and communication with Earth.
In the current phase, significant effort is being spent to overcome these challenges and achieve a robust design reducing the corresponding risks for the mission.