(music)

(music)

Imagine you work for the MMS mission. Your goal is to

measure how the Sun's and Earth's magnetic fields connect and disconnect,

explosively transferring energy from one to the other. We

call this magnetic reconnection. We want to get a 3D

observation of magnetic reconnection. To do this you'll need measurements

at four different points: a single base point and one additional point

for each dimension. This means you have to build not 1, but 4

spacecraft. And you'll need to pack each one

with 25 instruments. You'll need to arrange them so that they are not

blocking each other and so that the magnetometers are held safely away from

the spacecraft's body. But wait. You only

have 4 years to build, test, and launch all of them.

It typically takes 4 years to build just one, so you won't be able

to build them one at a time. You'll have to work on them concurrently.

You'll need a team to help you do that.

They will need space to work, so you'll have to build a cleanroom. And you'll have to

keep all of your people, paper, and tools organized because you'll have to wrap four sets

of wires, and prepare four sets of flight hardware and do four sets of tests

and make sure that everyone is working on the right project at the right time.

And now it's time to get to work

(music)

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