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Please forgive the dad joke headline, but rocket nerds, listen up: The is launching Thursday night and NASA wants to make sure everyone is ready to party.
MMS is set to blast off at 8:44 p.m. MDT () Thursday, March 12 from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. And since there ain’t no party like a rocket launch party, and NASA made an .
Of course, the launch will air live on or . But there is so much more to do to make this a fun and educational experience for all your favorite space nerds, no matter their age.
Invite postcards? Go. Activities? Go. and ? Go, and go. There’s even model instructions for building MMS spacecraft from cardstock, paper and LEGO.
Teachers, take special note: NASA has to teach kids about space weather and its impact on Earth.
So what is MMS? I’m glad you asked. MMS uses four identical spacecraft, each equipped with a suite of 25 identical science instruments, to study the phenomena of magnetic reconnection. Learning more about this relationship between solar-wind energy and Earth’s protective magnetic space environment — or magnetosphere — will help scientists better understand and predict space weather events that can wreak havoc on GPS, communication networks, electrical power grids, defense systems and more.
Artist concept of the four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft with both the Spin-plane Double Probe (SDP) — four 200-foot-long wire booms with sensors on the end, sticking out from the sides of the spacecraft — and the Axial Double Probe (ADP) — two 30-foot antennas that run through the center of each spacecraft on its spin axis — deployed. (Southwest Research Institute)
These spacecraft will orbit Earth arranged in an adjustable tetrahedron formation, moving between 4,400 miles and 47,000 miles altitude, and eventually extend to 93,000 miles altitude .
The four MMS spacecraft were assembled at Goddard Space Flight Center, however, the instruments came from around the globe. University of Colorado, Boulder was involved in two: , each which measure electric fields.
All four MMS spacecraft are stacked and ready for transport to the vibration chamber for environmental tests earlier this year. (Photo: NASA)
CU Boulder’s is also where the MMS Science Operations Center is located. has a story on how this unique facility, with students at the helm, serves as hub for the mission’s science gathering.
And, of course, there’s a local connection with ULA, which is based in Centennial. The Atlas V launch vehicle, and its a special MMS-compatible fairing at its tip, were engineered right here in Colorado. MMS will mark ULA’s 94th launch and the third of their 13 planned 2015 launches. Here’s a to learn more about the stages of the Atlas V 421 launch and deployment.
Here are some MMS facts so you can wow your friends with your brains:
- The MMS spacecraft will fly through reconnection regions in a fraction of a second, so key sensors were built to take measurements 100 times faster than any previous mission.
- The four MMS spacecraft will fly in an adjustable pyramid formation between 10 km and 400 km apart.
- Each MMS spacecraft, not including antennas and instrument booms, is about four feet tall and 11 feet wide. When stowed together inside the Atlas V launch vehicle, the four MMS spacecraft stack grows to more than 16 feet tall.
- In space, with axial booms and wire booms extended, each MMS spacecraft grows to be about 94 feet tall and 369 feet wide; almost the size of Fenway Park.
MMS is all over social media on , (also with #MagRecon), and . and also have a great Twitter presence, so show them some love too.
Happy party planning! Let me know if you plan an event, and I’ll share your photos here.
Bill Possel, LASP Director of Mission Operations and Data Systems, left, Daniel Baker, LASP Director, and Christopher Pankratz, LASP Data Systems Manager, right, discuss the MMS mission. (Photo: Kathryn Scott Osler/The Denver Post)
