MMS Mission Overview

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  • 
    ID: 12239 Produced Video

    MMS First Results

    May 12th, 2016
    (updated Aug. 25th, 2023)

    This short video outlines the MMS mission and its first results. Since it launched, MMS has made more than 4,000 trips through the magnetic boundaries around Earth, each time gathering information about the way the magnetic fields and particles move. A surprising result was that at the moment of interconnection between the sun’s magnetic field lines and those of Earth the crescents turned abruptly so that the electrons flowed along the field lines. By watching these electron tracers, MMS made the first observation of the predicted breaking and interconnection of magnetic fields in space. Credit: NASA/GSFCWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. ||

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  • 
    ID: 11251 Produced Video

    MMS Science Overview: The Mysteries of MMS

    Dec. 10th, 2014
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Scientists Michael Hesse and John Dorelli explain the science objectives of the MMS mission. || For More Information || See [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mms/](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mms/) ||

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  • 
    ID: 11702 Produced Video

    MMS Launch and Deploy - Narrated

    Nov. 21st, 2014
    (updated Aug. 25th, 2023)

    In March of 2015, an unprecedented NASA mission will launch to study a process so mysterious that no one has ever directly measured it in action. To create the first-ever 3-dimensional maps of this process, a process called magnetic reconnection, which occurs all over the universe, the Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission uses four separate spacecraft equipped with ultra high speed instruments. Launching four satellites into space simultaneously is a complicated process. In addition, each spacecraft has six booms that will unfold and extend in space once in orbit. A launch and deployment with so many moving parts must be meticulously planned. Watch the video to get a sneak preview of how MMS will make this journey: The four spacecraft are housed in a single rocket on their trip into space. One by one, each ejects out, before moving into a giant pyramid-shaped configuration. Next each spacecraft deploys its six booms. Once in orbit, MMS will fly through regions near Earth where this little-understood process of magnetic reconnection occurs. Magnetic reconnection happens in thin layers just miles thick, but can tap into enough power at times to create gigantic explosions many times the size of Earth. Reconnection happens when magnetic field lines explosively realign and release massive bursts of energy, while hurling particles out at nearly the speed of light in all directions. Magnetic reconnection powers eruptions on the sun and – closer to home – triggers the flow of material and energy from interplanetary space into near-Earth space. The MMS orbit will carry the four spacecraft through reconnection regions near Earth, using this nearby natural laboratory to better understand how reconnection occurs everywhere in space. For more information about MMS, visit: www.nasa.gov/mms ||

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  • 
    ID: 11526 Produced Video

    MMS Mission Trailer

    May 15th, 2014
    (updated Aug. 25th, 2023)

    In March 2015, NASA will launch four identical spacecraft to study how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy – a process known as magnetic reconnection. The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission will provide the first three-dimensional views of this fundamental process that can accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light. MMS uses Earth’s protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere, as a natural laboratory to directly measure reconnection. Reconnection is a common processes in our universe; occurring in space near Earth, in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at virtually any boundary between space plasmas, including the boundary between our solar system's heliosphere and interstellar space. ||

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  • 
    ID: 11485 Produced Video

    MMS Narrated Orbit

    May 6th, 2014
    (updated Aug. 25th, 2023)

    Scientist John Dorelli explains the MMS mission's orbit and why the four spacecraft fly in a tetrahedron formation. On its journey, MMS will observe a little-understood, but universal phenomenon called magnetic reconnection, responsible for dramatic re-shaping of the magnetic environment near Earth, often sending intense amounts of energy and fast-moving particles off in a new direction. Not only is this a fundamental physical process that occurs throughout the universe, it is also one of the drivers of space weather events at Earth. To truly understanding the process, requires four identical spacecraft to track how such reconnection events move across and through any given space in 3D. ||

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