With its own telescopes, SMILE will for the first time observe soft X-rays from the magnetosphere and, at the same time, ultraviolet radiation from the aurora . At the same time, similar to earlier missions in space plasma physics, the local properties of the plasma of the solar wind and the magnetosphere at the location of the probe are to be measured.
The tools of SMILE are:
Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) - a telescope for soft X-rays
UV Imager (UVI) - a telescope for ultraviolet radiation
Light Ion Analyzer (LIA) - for measuring the properties of the ionized plasma at the location of the probe
Magnetometer (MAG) - for measuring the magnetic fields at the location of the probe.
The structure and drive module of the probe are provided by CAS. ESA is responsible for the payload module and launch. The scientific instruments are developed by institutes in Europe, China and Canada. SMILE is to be brought into a highly elliptical earth orbit .