MMS Mission Overview

This short video outlines the MMS mission and its first results. Since it launched, MMS has made more than 4,000 trips through the magnetic boundaries around Earth, each time gathering information about the way the magnetic fields and particles move. A surprising result was that at the moment of interconnection between the sun’s magnetic field lines and those of Earth the crescents turned abruptly so that the electrons flowed along the field lines. By watching these electron tracers, MMS made the first observation of the predicted breaking and interconnection of magnetic fields in space. Credit: NASA/GSFCWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. Like sending sensors up into a hurricane, NASA has flown four spacecraft through an invisible maelstrom in space, called magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is one of the prime drivers of space radiation and so it is a key factor in the quest to learn more about our space environment and protect our spacecraft and astronauts as we explore farther and farther from Earth. A new paper printed on May 12 in Science, provides the first observations from inside a magnetic reconnection event. The research shows that magnetic reconnection is dominated by the electrons in space and the physics that drives them – thus providing the first ever information for what powers this fundamental process in nature. The effects of this sudden release of particles and energy – such as giant eruptions on the sun, the aurora, radiation storms in near-Earth space, high energy cosmic particles that come from other galaxies -- have been observed throughout the solar system and beyond. But we have never been able to witness this phenomenon of magnetic reconnection directly. Satellites have observed tantalizing glances of particles speeding by, but not the impetus -- like seeing the debris flung out from a tornado, but never seeing the storm itself. MMS is made of four identical spacecraft that launched in March 2015. They fly in a pyramid formation to create a full 3-dimensional map of any phenomena it observes. On October 16, 2015, the spacecraft traveled straight through a magnetic reconnection event at the boundary where Earth’s magnetic field bumps up against the sun’s magnetic field. Artist depiction of the MMS spacecraft. Credit: NASA/GSFC Animation depicting magnetic reconnection, when magnetic field lines connect and disconnect, explosively transferring energy. Credit: NASA/GSFC This numerical simulation represents the event observed with MMS. It shows magnetic field lines in black with the background color denoting the electric current density directed out of the plane. Red regions have stronger electric currents. The breaking of magnetic fields in these high current regions is magnetic reconnection. In the event observed by MMS, Earth would be to the left and the Sun would be far to the right. The spacecraft crossed through the region where reconnection occurs in the vertical direction. The movie is courtesy of Paul Cassak, Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, with input from Tai Phan (Berkeley), Jim Burch (SwRI), and Jerry Goldstein (SwRI). The movie was made using computational resources from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center, a Department of Energy user facility. This infographic describes some of the places throughout the universe where magnetic reconnection appears.Credit: NASA/GSFC

Scientists Michael Hesse and John Dorelli explain the science objectives of the MMS mission.

MMS launch and deploy sequence - Narrated by Systems Engineer Gary DavisWatch this video on YouTube.For complete transcript, click here. In March of 2015, an unprecedented NASA mission will launch to study a process so mysterious that no one has ever directly measured it in action. To create the first-ever 3-dimensional maps of this process, a process called magnetic reconnection, which occurs all over the universe, the Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission uses four separate spacecraft equipped with ultra high speed instruments. Launching four satellites into space simultaneously is a complicated process. In addition, each spacecraft has six booms that will unfold and extend in space once in orbit. A launch and deployment with so many moving parts must be meticulously planned. Watch the video to get a sneak preview of how MMS will make this journey: The four spacecraft are housed in a single rocket on their trip into space. One by one, each ejects out, before moving into a giant pyramid-shaped configuration. Next each spacecraft deploys its six booms. Once in orbit, MMS will fly through regions near Earth where this little-understood process of magnetic reconnection occurs. Magnetic reconnection happens in thin layers just miles thick, but can tap into enough power at times to create gigantic explosions many times the size of Earth. Reconnection happens when magnetic field lines explosively realign and release massive bursts of energy, while hurling particles out at nearly the speed of light in all directions. Magnetic reconnection powers eruptions on the sun and – closer to home – triggers the flow of material and energy from interplanetary space into near-Earth space. The MMS orbit will carry the four spacecraft through reconnection regions near Earth, using this nearby natural laboratory to better understand how reconnection occurs everywhere in space. For more information about MMS, visit: www.nasa.gov/mms

A movie trailer about the MMS mission.Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here. In March 2015, NASA will launch four identical spacecraft to study how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy – a process known as magnetic reconnection. The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission will provide the first three-dimensional views of this fundamental process that can accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light. MMS uses Earth’s protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere, as a natural laboratory to directly measure reconnection. Reconnection is a common processes in our universe; occurring in space near Earth, in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at virtually any boundary between space plasmas, including the boundary between our solar system s heliosphere and interstellar space.

Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel. Scientist John Dorelli explains the MMS mission s orbit and why the four spacecraft fly in a tetrahedron formation. On its journey, MMS will observe a little-understood, but universal phenomenon called magnetic reconnection, responsible for dramatic re-shaping of the magnetic environment near Earth, often sending intense amounts of energy and fast-moving particles off in a new direction. Not only is this a fundamental physical process that occurs throughout the universe, it is also one of the drivers of space weather events at Earth. To truly understanding the process, requires four identical spacecraft to track how such reconnection events move across and through any given space in 3D. Orbit video without narration