December 16, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute’s novel Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) instrument aboard NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft has successfully collected first-light data. IMAP launched in September to help researchers better understand the boundary of the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds and protects our solar system.
As a modern-day celestial cartographer, IMAP will chart the boundaries of the heliosphere — a huge bubble created by the Sun's wind that encapsulates our entire solar system — and study how the heliosphere interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond.
In addition to providing CoDICE, SwRI also managed IMAP’s mission payload, overseeing the development and delivery of all 10 IMAP instruments from multiple institutions. All have successfully recorded their first-light observations as the spacecraft journeys to its final observational post.
“IMAP features the next generation of instruments designed to give us a more complete picture of the interaction between the interstellar medium and the solar wind,” said SwRI’s Susan Pope, the mission’s payload manager. “This will provide a better understanding of our place in the universe.”
CoDICE measures the distribution and composition of interstellar pickup ions, particles that make it through the “heliospheric” filter. The instrument will also characterize solar wind ions as well as the mass and composition of highly energized solar particles associated with flares and coronal mass ejections.
“The CoDICE instrument performed just as expected, identifying particles from different origins by measuring protons as well as rarer ion species such as interstellar helium ions, and solar wind oxygen and iron ions,” said Dr. Mihir Desai, an IMAP co-investigator and part of the CoDICE leadership team.
The heliosphere is created by the constant flow of particles from the Sun known as the solar wind, which separates our solar system from the interstellar medium, the ancient cast-off winds of other stars. IMAP instruments will collect and analyze particles that make it through the barrier. The mission will also examine the fundamental processes that accelerate particles throughout the heliosphere and beyond. These energetic particles and cosmic rays can harm astronauts and space-based technologies.
“Initially developed through the Institute’s internal research and development program and then matured through the IMAP mission, CoDICE combines the capabilities of multiple instruments into one patented sensor,” said SwRI’s Dr. Stefano Livi, who led its development. “The 22-pound instrument is about the size of a 5-gallon paint bucket and has a unique and beautiful thermal management design.”
Spacecraft experience extreme temperature variations, ranging from the intense heat of direct sunlight to the frigid cold of deep space. To maintain operational reliability and longevity, the half of CoDICE that will always face the Sun has a shiny “gold” surface to deflect heat energy. The opposite side has a matte black surface to absorb as much heat as possible.
With all of IMAP’s instruments up and running, the mission has nearly completed its commissioning stage. The mission has moved into the science demonstration phase following a successful commissioning campaign, preparing for the operational science phase targeted to commence on Feb. 1, 2026, after it reaches its destination at Lagrange Point 1, about a million miles from Earth toward the Sun.
By studying the nature of the interaction of solar and stellar winds, IMAP will join a fleet of NASA heliophysics missions seeking to understand how the Sun affects the space environment near Earth and across the solar system. Heliophysics spacecraft studying the Sun, near-Earth space, and the boundaries of the heliosphere form a system observatory. Understanding the fundamental processes that govern our neighborhood in space continues to build a foundation for prediction of Earth’s and the solar system’s space weather.
Dr. David McComas of Princeton University is IMAP’s principal investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, built the spacecraft and operates the mission. IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program portfolio, managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
For more information, visit Heliophysics or contact Deb Schmid, +1 210 522 2254, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166.