Updates

Update 5 April 2025

Fram2 splashdown was at 16.18 UT Friday 4th April, ending the SolarMaX Mission! Fram2 is a part of exploration history and SolarMaX is also a new exploration into what is possible with collaboration between scientists, citizen scientists, and astronauts!

There was not much time for updates during the mission but here is summary:

• There was beautiful aurora seen in many places around the world!

• The SolarMaX Ground Support relayed information from your photos up to Jannicke in space!

• We saw some 'weird' aurora - as well as a lot of 'regular' aurora!

• The team are all incredibly proud of what we have all achieved together!

• We are excited to see Jannicke's videos!

We would like to thank you for taking part in the world's biggest aurora chase!
Please keep sending your images to Skywarden so we can use them in our research and you can be able to win the space prizes. We will decide and notify the winners of the space prizes after some weeks to give people a chance to sort out and upload their images and for us to receive the precious cargo. Please submit your images by the end of April to be in the running for the prizes.

This is the end of the mission but just the beginning of the science! We will continue to work together to collect images shot during the mission and use them to learn more about weird aurora. The SolarMaX website will be updated when we make progress, but it can take quite a while to put together the puzzle pieces. Thank you for joining us on this journey, please contact katieh@unis.no with questions or comments!

Update 3 April 2025

We now have communication with Jannicke aboard Fram2!

We have now made contact with Jannicke aboard Fram2! She is filming the aurora at every opportunity she gets! The SolarMaX Mission Control in Svalbard is relying reports of aurora from the SolarMaX Ground Support team. We are watching out carefully for types of weird aurora in your photos. Remember to submit your photos to Skywarden for researchers to use them to learn more about aurora!

Update 1 April 2025

Fram2 has launched!!!

Update 25 March 2025

Fram2 is currently scheduled to launch Tue Apr 1, 2025 01:47 UTC

There can be delays with the launch, so keep up to date with the status here.

Be aware that some places in the world change their clocks to summer time in the next few days, so be extra careful your camera time is correct when you head out to photograph!

You must submit your photos to Skywarden for researchers to be able to use your photos and for you to be considered for the prizes that have been to space.

If you'd like to take aurora photos during the project, please use the following instructions as a guide!