91制片厂

听

On October 16, 2015, dozens of 91制片厂 scientists, space physics researchers, engineers and students made history. That鈥檚 when the four satellites of mission flew through an elusive magnetic reconnection event, forever changing our understanding of what powers giant explosions at the edge of the Earth鈥檚 magnetic boundary.

鈥淭his dataset is so revolutionary that I think we鈥檒l be mining it for 50 years,鈥� says professor of physics Roy Torbert of the information that event yielded. Torbert led the 91制片厂 team that constructed or coordinated nearly half the key instruments on each of the four satellites. 鈥淲e were confident that we would be able to get some important data from the mission but to do it as quickly and accurately as we did was just amazing.鈥�

Torbert, of the in the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS), is co-author of a hotly anticipated study in the journal that reports those results today.

The findings are significant because magnetic reconnection is one of the most important drivers of space weather events like solar flares, coronal mass ejections and geomagnetic storms. It can affect modern technological systems like communications satellites, GPS navigation and electrical power grids, as well as the safety of astronauts in space.

Magnetic reconnections, Torbert says, are 鈥渞apid explosive events that release that energy, and we don鈥檛 understand them.鈥� Before MMS, in fact, satellites observed the effects of magnetic reconnection but never the impetus, like seeing debris scattered from a tornado but not the storm itself. This understanding could help scientists predict these events and take measures to protect our space assets and power grids.

鈥淏y seeing magnetic reconnection in action, we have observed one of the fundamental processes of nature,鈥� adds Jim Burch, the principal investigator for MMS at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, and the first author on the Science paper.

NASA鈥檚 $1.1-billion MMS mission launched on March 12, 2015, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, carrying a quartet of identical satellites that fly in a tight pyramid shape to provide a three-dimensional map of its observations. At 91制片厂, a team of nearly 40 people 鈥� scientists, engineers, managers, software developers, machinists, technicians and students 鈥� delivered a suite of six sensors per spacecraft called the FIELDS instrument suite.

"This dataset is so revolutionary that I think we鈥檒l be mining it for 50 years."

Late in the game, the team also took over the construction of the Spin-plane Double Probe (SDP), a complex, mission-critical instrument that had fallen behind in its development. The SDP consists of 16 200-foot-long wire booms 鈥� four on each of the four spinning MMS spacecraft 鈥� with orange-sized sensors at the end that measure electric potential in the vacuum of space. NASA recently honored that team for its efforts in rescuing the SDP.

At nearly $70 million, MMS represented the largest single contract in the 60-year history of the Space Science Center, says SSC investigation project manager John Macri 鈥�78G. 鈥淭his was a huge opportunity for 91制片厂, but it was still in our comfort zone,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he infrastructure was here, the culture was here, the talent was here.鈥�

While the project tapped expertise like Macri鈥檚 and Torbert鈥檚, it also nurtured the budding talents of many undergraduate and graduate students who launched careers with MMS. Research scientist Matthew Argall 鈥�14G, who worked on MMS as a Ph.D. student, was one of them.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been extremely exciting, both personally and professionally,鈥� he says. 鈥淓very day I have the chance to look at something new that no one has seen before.鈥�

On a personal level, he adds, he attended the MMS launch in Florida with 20 family members, including his grandfather, who designed the joystick navigator for NASA鈥檚 lunar rover.

The power and clarity of data from MMS caps nearly a decade of 91制片厂 dedication to the project. 鈥淭he longstanding, world-class expertise of the 91制片厂 Space Science Center in space instrumentation was critical to forming our excellent international team on MMS, which contributed directly to the findings of this exciting mission thus far,鈥� says Torbert.

听

听