Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
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[edit] Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) is a NASA unmanned space mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere and in particular magnetic reconnection using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation. The mission will be a laboratory to study the microphysics of magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence, processes which occur in many astrophysical plasmas but can only be studied in situ in the solar system. The mission builds upon the successes of the ESA Cluster Mission, but will surpass Cluster in spatial resolution and in temporal resolution, allowing for the first time measurements of the critical electron diffusion region, the site where magnetic reconnection occurs. It orbit is optimized to spend extended periods in locations where reconnection is known to occur: at the dayside magnetopause and in the magnetotail.
[edit] MMS Overview
The Principal Investigator for the Mission is James L. Burch of Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), with an international team of investigators, both instrument leads and theory and modeling experts. Basics of the mission are described in the NASA page. More details are available from the MMS pages at SWRI. Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) is a key aspect of the mission, with student activities, data sonification, and planetarium shows being developed for the mission. The E/PO site at Rice University has links to the educational materials for the mission.
MMS, selected by NASA in 2005, is in development with a projected launch date of 2014. Instrumentation is presently being optimized, with extensive heritage from other missions such as Cluster and Cassini.
[edit] References
- Moldwin, Mark, An Introduction to Space Weather,Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521861496, 2007.
- SWRI to Lead MMS Mission
- Curtis, Steve, Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission: Cross-scale Exploration of Complexity in the Magnetosphere, Ch 8 of Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Plasmas, ed. P. Kaw, Springer, ISBN 978-1-4020-3108-3, 2005.
- National Academy of Sciences, "The Sun to the Earth - And Beyond", ISBN 978-0-309-08972-2, 2003. online version available.
- NASA 2006 Strategic Plan
- NASA 2007 Science Plan
