{"id":99668,"date":"2025-07-28T15:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99668\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T15:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:18:13","slug":"nasa-launches-tracers-mission-to-study-how-earths-magnetic-field-protects-us-from-solar-storms-and-extreme-space-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99668\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA launches TRACERS mission to study how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from solar storms and extreme space weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA\u2019s mission to study how Earth\u2019s magnetic field protects us from space weather<\/strong> has just been launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandernberg Space Force Base in California.<\/strong> The mission dubbed TRACERS (for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites)<\/strong> <\/a>involves two nearly identical spacecraft that will be following each other about 10 seconds apart to take thousands of detailed measurements during their yearlong mission.<\/p>\n

This mission is being lead by David Miles from the University of Iowa<\/strong> with support from NASA\u2019s Heliophysics Division. The University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, and University of California Los Angeles and Berkeley<\/strong>, all manage instruments aboard TRACERS.<\/strong> Both satellites<\/strong> will gather over 3,000 measurements over the time of the mission to create a picture of how the magnetic reconnection changes over time.<\/strong> Which is when a magnetic field line<\/strong> breaks and snaps together at a different position. Particles are accelerated towards Earth<\/strong> due to the heat produced and we see them as Auroras near the poles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new NASA mission, one more step in understandign both space and how it interacts with Earth<\/p>\n

Aboard that same Falcon 9 rocket<\/strong> were other small satellites; NASA\u2019s Athena EPIC, PExT, and REAL mission.<\/strong> These missions will serve as a proof of concept for new technologies and as data gathering satellites.<\/strong> Mission controllers will work on contacting these satellites<\/strong> over the coming hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA<\/strong> is proud to launch TRACERS<\/strong> to demonstrate and expand American preeminence in space science research and technology,\u201d<\/strong> said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy.<\/strong> \u201cThe TRACERS satellites<\/strong> will move us forward in decoding space weather and further our understanding of the connection between Earth and the Sun.<\/strong> This mission will yield breakthroughs that will advance our pursuit of the Moon, and subsequently, Mars.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

After separation, TRACERS\u2019 mission control team<\/strong> began the commissioning of the second satellite three hours after separation from the rocket<\/strong>. This commissioning process will take a few weeks to have both satellites completely operational and initiating their data-gathering mission<\/strong>. This way, ground control engineers can make sure that all systems are working as expected.<\/p>\n

Both satellites will orbit around what is known as the Polar Cusp<\/strong>, a region near the Earth\u2019s magnetic North Pole<\/strong>, where there is a gap from Earth\u2019s magnetic field<\/strong> to space. This is where particles from Sun flare particles<\/strong> (also known as solar storms<\/strong>) can be carried into our magnetosphere<\/strong> when there is a break in Earth\u2019s magnetic field<\/strong> on the dayside which results in a reconnection on the nightside of Earth. Depending on the strength these reconnections result in Northern Light events (Aurora Borealis) visible close to the magnetic poles<\/strong>. These collisions will be what TRACERS<\/strong> will be looking for and studying how it changes over the 12-month-long mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA\u2019s heliophysics fleet<\/strong> helps to safeguard humanity\u2019s home in space and understand the influence of our closest star, the Sun,\u201d said Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.<\/strong> \u201cBy adding TRACERS<\/strong> to that fleet, we will gain a better understanding of those impacts right here at Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe successful launch of TRACERS<\/strong> is a tribute to many years of work by an excellent team,\u201d said David Miles, TRACERS principal investigator at the University of Iowa. \u201cTRACERS<\/strong> is set to transform our understanding of Earth\u2019s magnetosphere<\/strong>. We\u2019re excited to explore the dynamic processes driving space weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mission was launched under NASA\u2019s VADR contract,<\/strong> which is overseen by the Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other missions that will be taking palce at the same time are<\/p>\n

Athena EPIC which is a pathfinder mission to test NASA\u2019s innovative SmallSatarchitecture to improve flexibility of payload designs<\/strong>, reduce launch schedule, and reduce overall costs in future missions.<\/strong> After a two-week-long mission it will spend 12 months taking measurements of longwave radiation from Earth<\/p>\n

PExT demonstration<\/strong> will test interoperability between commercial and government communication networks,<\/strong> demonstrating a polylingual terminal in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

REAL mission is a CubeSat that will investigate how electrons interact with the Van Allen radiation belts into Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/strong>\u00a0REAL<\/strong> aims to improve our understanding of these energetic particles that can damage spacecraft and imperil astronauts who pass through them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s mission to study how Earth\u2019s magnetic field protects us from space weather has just been launched aboard…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":99669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-99668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114931532682505732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}