Orbital Eclipse Telescopes: UK's MESOM Proposal Exposes Gaps in Continuous Solar Corona Monitoring

The UK White Paper outlines the Moon-Enabled Sun Occultation Mission (MESOM) as a dedicated space platform for artificial total solar eclipses, targeting high-resolution imaging of the solar atmosphere's structure and dynamics. Unlike ground-based eclipses limited by weather and rarity, MESOM would enable repeated observations from orbit, directly addressing STFC priorities on magnetic variability and Sun-planet interactions. This preprint (arXiv:2606.05244, not peer-reviewed) synthesizes mission concepts but overlooks integration with existing assets like NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which has already sampled coronal plasma in situ since 2018, and ESA's Solar Orbiter, providing complementary EUV data. A key omission is quantitative trade-off analysis against simpler coronagraph upgrades on current spacecraft. Related work in Nature Astronomy (2022) on artificial occultation concepts and ApJ (2023) on coronal heating models highlight how MESOM could fill temporal gaps but faces challenges in formation flying precision. Limitations include no sample observations yet—purely conceptual—and reliance on unproven UK launch infrastructure. Public engagement potential is strong, framing eclipses as routine rather than celestial events.