РІР‚СљWeРІР‚в„ўve never - before MMS - had the ability to essentially run the camera fast enough to catch it,РІР‚Сњ said Tom Moore, MMS senior project scientist.Р”Р‡or launch, each satellite will weigh 3,000 pounds, the mass of a Toyota Prius, and stand about 4 feet tall and 12 feet wide. The instruments include those to study the electric and magnetic fields, measure plasmas and probe energetic particles. РІР‚СљWhereas it would take a previous generation particle instrument three or four seconds to build up a whole picture of the sky, itРІР‚в„ўs going to take MMS about 30 milliseconds. РІР‚СљThe instruments that are actually going to be measuring the particles in space are collecting them more rapidly at a much higher cadence than they have on previous missions, by about a factor of 100,РІР‚Сњ said Dorelli. The MMS spacecraft will soar through reconnection regions in a fraction of a second, making the key sensors required to take measurements 100 times faster than any previous mission. РІР‚СљWe fly through the region of interest every day and we want to have a good formation of the four spacecraft,РІР‚Сњ said Robertson. Later in the mission, after 1.5 years, the high point will be boosted to 95,000 miles. The four spacecraft, each the size of a baseball diamond with their antennas sprung out, will be maneuvered with an accuracy of 330 feet, said Craig Tooley, the MMS project manager from NASA-Goddard.Р”В®jecting one by one from the Atlas 5 rocket into a preliminary orbit, the spacecraft will fire their onboard thrusters to reach operational orbits looping 1,600 miles in altitude at its closest approach to Earth and extending out to 43,500 miles at its farthest. We have to have very precise maneuvers to do that with a spinning spacecraft. РІР‚СљWe start out at 100 km (62 miles) apart per spacecraft and bring them in to 10 km (6 miles) apart. РІР‚СљThe formation flying is just as hard as going to Mars,РІР‚Сњ says Brent Robertson, MMS deputy project manager at NASA-Goddard. To perform the sampling, the four identical probes must fly together in a close constellation in Earth orbit. So we would really like to understand how these magnetic explosions work.РІР‚Сњ It can actually affect communications satellites, the power grid. РІР‚СљThese space weather phenomena can have impacts on our every day lives. РІР‚СљThe reason this is important is these explosions drive a lot of the weather patterns that we see in the magnetosphere, what space scientists call space weather,РІР‚Сњ said John Dorelli, a space scientist at NASAРІР‚в„ўs Goddard Space Flight Center, where MMS was built. РІР‚СљMMS is the best one and the hardest one because itРІР‚в„ўll be a final result on an important phenomena - not just learning more, but solving the problem.РІР‚Сњ РІР‚СљThe measurements we are making are such fine-scale that there wonРІР‚в„ўt have to be another mission after this.РІР‚СњР”Р„ veteran of other missions, Burch predicts MMS will be the greatest one yet. РІР‚СљThere are a lot of models about reconnection and they all make certain assumptions because we donРІР‚в„ўt really know whatРІР‚в„ўs happening,РІР‚Сњ said Jim Burch, principal investigator of the MMS instrument suite. The project is known as the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, with the spacecraft operating in a tetrahedron formation to fly through explosive connections and disconnections of the magnetic field lines above Earth, events that explosively convert magnetic energy into particle energy. EDT (0244 GMT) at the opening of a 30-minute launch window for the rocket to get airborne from Complex 41. CAPE CANAVERAL - A $1.1 billion science investigation involving four formation-flying satellites circling the Earth, each one identical, fitted with 25-instrument sensors and measuring 94 feet tall by 369 feet wide when fully deployed, will share a single Atlas 5 rocket launch Thursday night from Cape Canaveral to probe explosions in the magnetic field with millisecond speed.

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