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[building music]

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[building music]

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[drumbeats] >>KATRINA: The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission.

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Designed to study the fundamental physics phenomenon called "magnetic

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reconnection," it's a complex conglomeration of advanced instruments

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developed by NASA and France, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Japan

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and several American universities and research institutes. [swoosh]

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And right here at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, we're proud to contribute with 

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a whole suite of instruments called the Fast Plasma Investigation. 

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[drums, music]

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>>CRAIG: Magnetic reconnection is a phenomenon where magnetic fields come together and essentially merge, releasing

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energy. It occurs in stellar environments, our own Sun,

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it occurs in planetary environments like around the Earth, and it occurs 

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in the interplanetary space. For another thing, we're trying to learn how to

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harness nuclear fusion as an energy source

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and one of the roadblocks is our lack of understanding of magnetic reconnection. 

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>>KATRINA: So why have we chosen Earth's magnetosphere to study this process

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of magnetic reconnection? >>CRAIG: The magnetosphere is a convenient location

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to study it. And we need to understand magnetic reconnection in the Earth's

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magnetosphere because it has a profound influence on space weather. >>KATRINA: And

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space weather near Earth is caused by storms on the Sun that can affect our satellites 

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and communications, right? >>CRAIG: Yes, you could put it that way. >>KATRINA: How long do we have

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to make these measurements? >>CRAIG: Only a very short period of time. The region where the 

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magnetic reconnection is occurring sweeps over the spacecraft in only about 

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a tenth of a second, so we have to get our measurements made in that short time.

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[drumming]

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>>KATRINA: So I'm told that magnetic reconnection happens really quickly, 

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from the perspective of the spacecraft anyway as they fly through the region. How does the 

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Fast Plasma Investigation suite of instruments help us to measure this?

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>>ULRIK: So on each satellite we have four spectrometers, 

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dual ion spectrometers and dual electron 

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spectrometers, and as the satellite goes around, we can very quickly all the way

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around the satellite capture the events. >>KATRINA: So the dual electron spectrometer

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is developed here at Goddard. What exactly does that measure? >>ULRIK: They're measuring the energy, 

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the direction, and the abundance of the electrons, how many electrons there are there. 

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>>KATRINA: Could you show me a little bit about how it works? >>ULRIK: The instrument has this box at the end,

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here which is our electronics box, where we have all the power supplies and the controls 

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for the instrument. [instrument moving] And you can see the 

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aperture opening here of one of the sensor heads, and that enables, that opening goes 

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180 degrees around. >>KATRINA: So you have four of these instruments

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on each of the four satellites, so you have 16 in total of 

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the electron spectrometers. That's a lot of instruments! Has Goddard ever done

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something like this before where it's had to build and test so many

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instruments at once? >>ULRIK: To the best of my knowledge, this is the 

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largest multiple build that has been done at Goddard.

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[door opening] >>KATRINA: Well the hard work is about to pay off!

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The four MMS spacecraft are set to launch in March of 2015. 

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Thanks to the incredible talents and collaborations of scientists and 

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engineers, here at Goddard and across the globe, we're finally on our way to solving this

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physics mystery, and uncovering the dynamics of magnetic reconnection. 

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[boom] [drum drum drum drum] [exciting music]

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[exciting music fades out]

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