NAIL: Our last question comes from Kiko from Nagasaki:
How does the research from the ST5 differ from other solar wind, sunspots, plasma measuring satellites?
SLAVIN: Another very, very good question. When you're, the source of all space weather in the solar system is really the sun.
And when you're talking about a mission that's observing the surface of the sun and looking at sunspots,
for example, or you have an interplanetary spacecraft that's measuring the solar wind --
that's part of this charged-particle radiation from the sun that I was talking about earlier --
what you're really doing is you're examining the sources of space weather.
You're looking at what's happening at the sun -- the sun being the driver for all the space weather.
Now, at ST5, we're going to be making, again it's a technology mission, but as our science demonstration,
we're going to be studying the Earth's auroral zones.
We're going to be making measurements of the electric currents that cause the northern and the southern lights, the auroral borealis.
And the auroral borealis, themselves a form of space weather,
are actually driven by what happens on the sun and by the nature and intensity of the solar wind.
So, ST5 is examining the results of space weather on the sun.
These other spacecraft that look at the solar wind or look at sunspots, they're actually observing the ultimate cause.
NAIL: Thank you, Dr. Slavin, for joining us today. You've really shared some insight into the ST5 mission.
SLAVIN: My pleasure.