NASA : NASA's MMS Spacecraft Launches on an Atlas V Rocket .- Atlas V Rocket lanza MMS Las naves espaciales de la NASA

domingo, 15 de marzo de 2015

NASA : NASA's MMS Spacecraft Launches on an Atlas V Rocket .- Atlas V Rocket lanza MMS Las naves espaciales de la NASA

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Agencia Espacial NASA, sobre el lanzamiento de sus naves NASA’s MMS misión - MMS, impulsadas por el cohete : The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

NASA, nos dice : " El cohete United Launch Alliance Atlas V con la nave espacial de la NASA Magnetosférica Multiescala (MMS) lanza a bordo de la Estación de Lanzamiento Espacial de la Fuerza Aérea de Cabo Cañaveral Complejo 41, Jueves, 12 de marzo 2015, Florida. Misión MMS de la NASA estudia el misterio de cómo los campos magnéticos alrededor de la Tierra a conectar y desconectar, liberando energía en forma explosiva a través de un proceso conocido como reconexión magnética. MMS consta de cuatro naves espaciales idénticas que trabajan juntos para proporcionar la primera vista tridimensional de este proceso fundamental, que se produce en todo el universo....."

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NASA's MMS Spacecraft Launches on an Atlas V Rocket

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft onboard launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, March 12, 2015, Florida. NASA’s MMS mission studies the mystery of how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy via a process known as magnetic reconnection. MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that work together to provide the first three-dimensional view of this fundamental process, which occurs throughout the universe.

Image Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

NASA

NASA Spacecraft in Earth’s Orbit, Preparing to Study Magnetic Reconnection

Image Credit:

NASA

Following a successful launch at 10:44 p.m. EDT Thursday, NASA’s four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft are positioned in Earth’s orbit to begin the first space mission dedicated to the study of a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. This process is thought to be the catalyst for some of the most powerful explosions in our solar system.

The spacecraft, positioned one on top of the other on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 421 rocket, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. After reaching orbit, each spacecraft deployed from the rocket’s upper stage sequentially, in five-minute increments, beginning at 12:16 a.m. Friday, with the last separation occurring at 12:31 a.m. NASA scientists and engineers were able to confirm the health of all separated spacecraft at 12:40 a.m.

"I am speaking for the entire MMS team when I say we’re thrilled to see all four of our spacecraft have deployed and data indicates we have a healthy fleet,” said Craig Tooley, project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Atlas V with MMS Spacecraft Takes Flight

As an Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the background, the launch can also be seen on the countdown clock at the Kennedy Space Center's Press Site. The rocket is carrying NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, spacecraft.

Image Credit:

NASA/Frankie Martin

Over the next several weeks, NASA scientists and engineers will deploy booms and antennas on the spacecraft, and test all instruments. The observatories will later be placed into a pyramid formation in preparation for science observations, which are expected to begin in early September.

“After a decade of planning and engineering, the science team is ready to go to work,” said Jim Burch, principal investigator for the MMS instrument suite science team at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio (SwRI). “We’ve never had this type of opportunity to study this fundamental process in such detail.”

The mission will provide the first three-dimensional views of reconnection occurring in Earth's protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere. Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic fields connect, disconnect, and reconfigure explosively, releasing bursts of energy that can reach the order of billions of megatons of trinitrotoluene (commonly known as TNT). These explosions can send particles surging through space near the speed of light.

Scientists expect the mission will not only help them better understand magnetic reconnection, but also will provide insight into these powerful events, which can disrupt modern technological systems such as communications networks, GPS navigation, and electrical power grids.

By studying reconnection in this local, natural laboratory, scientists can understand the process elsewhere, such as in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at the boundary between our solar system's heliosphere and interstellar space.

Artist's concept of the MMS observatory fleet with rainbow magnetic lines.

Image Credit:

NASA

The spacecraft will fly in a tight formation through regions of reconnection activity. Using sensors designed to measure the space environment at rates100 times faster than any previous mission.

“MMS is a crucial next step in advancing the science of magnetic reconnection – and no mission has ever observed this fundamental process with such detail,” said Jeff Newmark, interim director for NASA’s Heliophysics Division at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “The depth and detail of our knowledge is going to grow by leaps and bounds, in ways that no one can yet predict.”

MMS is the fourth mission in the NASA Solar Terrestrial Probes Program. Goddard built, integrated and tested the four MMS spacecraft and is responsible for overall mission management and operations. The principal investigator for the MMS instrument suite science team is based at the SwRI. Science operations planning and instrument commanding are performed at the MMS Science Operations Center at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.   

More information about the MMS mission is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mms