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MMS Spacecraft Assembly

MMS Spacecraft #4

Technicians and Engineers use the crane to install Instrument Deck #4 on top of the flight Thrust Tube #4. This MMS spacecraft is now officially considered “Observatory #4” and will remain in the clean room for further component integration and functional tests.



The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth’s magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence. These processes occur in all astrophysical plasma systems but can be studied in situ only in our solar system and most efficiently only in Earth’s magnetosphere, where they control the dynamics of the geospace environment and play an important role in the processes known as “space weather.”

Press Releases

01.24.13Working on Four Spacecraft Simultaneously
01.08.13Cluster Finds Turbulent Eddies May Warm the Solar Wind
12.13.12Instrument Deck Installed on MMS Observatory #2
09.11.12Students Build a MMS Spacecraft Model Using LEGOs®
07.02.12Hidden Portals in Earth’s Magnetic Field
06.08.12Instrument Integration Begins on MMS Spacecraft
04.30.12Goddard Collaborates With International Partners on MMS Instrument
01.13.12Spacecraft Cleanroom Goes Green
04.29.11Goddard Building Instrument To Study Reconnection
10.01.10Q&A: Missions, Meetings, and the Radial Tire Model of the Magnetosphere

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Observatory Integration

OBS3 image 2



Earth’s magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of magnetic reconnection


MMS Spacecraft in formation

The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission will use four identical spacecraft, variably spaced in Earth orbit, to make three-dimensional measurements of magnetospheric boundary regions and examine the process of magnetic reconnection. Credit: Southwest Research Institute

Mission Status

Agency Baseline Commitment: March 2015
Launch Readiness Date (LRD): October 2014
Phase C/D: Design & Development
Mission Highlights – As of May 2, 2013:

This week a flurry of activities were undertaken on Observatory #1 including the installation of the Axial Double Probe Boom (ADP) Receiving Element, movement of the observatory from the Aronson table to the dolly, magnetometer boom 2nd and 3rd stage deployments, magnetometer instrument functional testing, installation of Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) instruments and installation of the X-box. On Observatory #2 the Navigator, Acceleration Measuring System (AMS) and Star Sensor flight software updates were installed, the battery loop harness was installed and magnetometer boom installation commenced. On Observatory #4 optical bench alignment measurements were taken and Comprehensive Performance Test (CPT) dry runs continued. On Observatory #3 the electrical integration of the Engine Valve Driver (EVD) to propulsion system was completed and the AMS was integrated and functionally tested.

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Multimedia

MMS Orbit Animation

This animation shows the orbits of Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising of four identically instrumented spacecraft that will study the Earth’s magnetosphere.

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