The MMS-SMART team members, led by Jim Burch at Southwest Research Institute, happy after hearing their selection
by NASA as the instrument suite for the MMS mission
MMS will use a four-spacecraft suite to study reconnection, the most important process in the Earth's magnetosphere and in astrophysical objects such as solar flares. Rice will be leading the EPO for this mission.
COMPONENTS OF THE MMS EPO PROGRAM INCLUDE
- YES (Young Engineers and Scientists) workshop at SWRI in San Antonio
- SMART workshops for students at the University of New Hampshire
- Teacher courses and workshops at national science meetings
and as part of the Master of Science Teaching Program,
teaching about the scence of Cluster, MMS and other ways we use measurements in spacecraft data analysis.
- Space Camp for
the Blind, sponsored by the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. We will be creating data sonifications for the blind, with a sample kiosk this year
- Heliospheric Ambassador Program, in partnership with the other NASA heliospheric missions.
- Sally Ride Science Festivals. MMS is a major sponsor of the annual festival at Rice, reaching 1400 middle school girls annually.
MMS LINKS OF INTEREST
- MMS-SMART website at SWRI (includes links to fact sheet, proposal, and other information)
- Movie showing how four spacecraft can determine the orientation and motion of a boundary by using a weather analogy
- Movie using actual Cluster data showing how four spacecraft are critical for determining the magnetic field structure of reconnection. The sound is a sonification of the magnetic field data across the boundary.
- NASA is planning a daring new mission to investigate the Universe's favorite way of making things explode. Unlocking the secrets of "magnetic reconnection" could help alleviate the energy crisis on Earth.
FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/31aug_mms.htm?list187357
- Reconnecting Magnetic Fields -
The huge amounts of energy released from the relinking of magnetic fields in
outer space are both mysterious and potentially destructive
James L. Burch and James F. Drake
Reprint from American Scientist the magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
