[building music]
[drumbeats] >>KATRINA: The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission.
Designed to study the fundamental physics phenomenon called "magnetic
reconnection," it's a complex conglomeration of advanced instruments
developed by NASA and France, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Japan
and several American universities and research institutes. [swoosh]
And right here at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, we're proud to contribute with
a whole suite of instruments called the Fast Plasma Investigation.
[drums, music]
>>CRAIG: Magnetic reconnection is a phenomenon where magnetic fields come together and essentially merge, releasing
energy. It occurs in stellar environments, our own Sun,
it occurs in planetary environments like around the Earth, and it occurs
in the interplanetary space. For another thing, we're trying to learn how to
harness nuclear fusion as an energy source
and one of the roadblocks is our lack of understanding of magnetic reconnection.
>>KATRINA: So why have we chosen Earth's magnetosphere to study this process
of magnetic reconnection? >>CRAIG: The magnetosphere is a convenient location
to study it. And we need to understand magnetic reconnection in the Earth's
magnetosphere because it has a profound influence on space weather. >>KATRINA: And
space weather near Earth is caused by storms on the Sun that can affect our satellites
and communications, right? >>CRAIG: Yes, you could put it that way. >>KATRINA: How long do we have
to make these measurements? >>CRAIG: Only a very short period of time. The region where the
magnetic reconnection is occurring sweeps over the spacecraft in only about
a tenth of a second, so we have to get our measurements made in that short time.
[drumming]
>>KATRINA: So I'm told that magnetic reconnection happens really quickly,
from the perspective of the spacecraft anyway as they fly through the region. How does the
Fast Plasma Investigation suite of instruments help us to measure this?
>>ULRIK: So on each satellite we have four spectrometers,
dual ion spectrometers and dual electron
spectrometers, and as the satellite goes around, we can very quickly all the way
around the satellite capture the events. >>KATRINA: So the dual electron spectrometer
is developed here at Goddard. What exactly does that measure? >>ULRIK: They're measuring the energy,
the direction, and the abundance of the electrons, how many electrons there are there.
>>KATRINA: Could you show me a little bit about how it works? >>ULRIK: The instrument has this box at the end,
here which is our electronics box, where we have all the power supplies and the controls
for the instrument. [instrument moving] And you can see the
aperture opening here of one of the sensor heads, and that enables, that opening goes
180 degrees around. >>KATRINA: So you have four of these instruments
on each of the four satellites, so you have 16 in total of
the electron spectrometers. That's a lot of instruments! Has Goddard ever done
something like this before where it's had to build and test so many
instruments at once? >>ULRIK: To the best of my knowledge, this is the
largest multiple build that has been done at Goddard.
[door opening] >>KATRINA: Well the hard work is about to pay off!
The four MMS spacecraft are set to launch in March of 2015.
Thanks to the incredible talents and collaborations of scientists and
engineers, here at Goddard and across the globe, we're finally on our way to solving this
physics mystery, and uncovering the dynamics of magnetic reconnection.
[boom] [drum drum drum drum] [exciting music]
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