易胜博官网

NASA has selected 易胜博官网 to lead a $250 million mission 鈥� the largest NASA contract in 易胜博官网鈥檚 history 鈥� that will improve our understanding of how the sun affects the space environment around Earth. will oversee and coordinate all aspects of the mission, including preparing the spacecraft, designing onboard instruments and managing the entire team of scientists, researchers and contractors.

鈥淲e could not be prouder that 易胜博官网鈥檚 incredible team of scientists and engineers was selected for this NASA MIDEX space mission,鈥� says听Marian McCord, senior vice provost of research, economic engagement and outreach. 鈥淭his is an exciting opportunity and a true testament to the high caliber of expertise and outstanding work being done at 易胜博官网鈥檚 Space Science Center.鈥�

易胜博官网鈥檚 HelioSwarm mission was selected by NASA in a competition including four other mission concepts. HelioSwarm will include the development of a suite, or swarm, of nine spacecraft to observe turbulence in the solar wind 鈥� charged particles released from the Sun 鈥� and the interplanetary magnetic field. One large spacecraft, known as the 鈥渉ub,鈥澨齛nd eight smaller spacecraft, called the 鈥渘odes,鈥澨齱ill co-orbit to monitor the ever-changing turbulence in space to reveal for the first time how these variations look in three dimensions and how they evolve. The hub spacecraft will maintain radio contact with each small satellite and all radio contact between the swarm and Earth will be conducted through the hub spacecraft and the NASA Deep Space Network of spacecraft communication antennas. HelioSwarm鈥檚 novel implementation will unlock the mystery of how turbulence heats space plasma, which is matter that makes up key elements in the universe, like the sun, stars, solar wind and even the Earth鈥檚 upper atmosphere.

易胜博官网 will run听the mission鈥檚 Science Operations Center, developing and delivering the central computer processors for each of the nine spacecraft and managing the entire science payload comprising a total of 28 individual instruments developed at partner institutions.

鈥淧lasma turbulence is one of the fundamental, yet听poorly understood,听building blocks of how our sun affects the solar system, and, by听extension, how听stars influence their environments,鈥� says听Harlan Spence, director for the 听and HelioSwarm principal investigator. 鈥淭his mission leverages 易胜博官网鈥檚 incredible expertise and we look forward to leading efforts to help the world understand how the sun impacts our lives and the universe.鈥�

The HelioSwarm mission will involve close to 25 易胜博官网 faculty, researchers, scientists and students as well as managers, engineers and technical staff. The team will work directly with a NASA field center, in this case NASA Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, California.

Since the early 1990鈥檚, NASA鈥檚 Explorers Program has provided several classes of flight opportunities to address NASA science objectives. The missions are designed to increase the number of flight opportunities in response to recommendations from the scientific community. The two mission categories include the MIDEX, or Medium Explorer, and SMEX, or Small Explorer, mission, with MIDEX receiving more funding. NASA provides an uncrewed commercial launch vehicle for the research teams to access space.

Watch: EOS director and HelioSwarm principal investigator Harlan Spence describes how HelioSwarm's nine spacecraft will reveal space turbulence for the first time ever.