NASA selected one small research mission concept to advance toward mission design and another for a long concept development period.
The Science Management Council of NASA's Science Mission Directorate selected CINEMA (Cross-Scale Exploration of the Earth's Magnetic Tail and Aurora) to move into Phase B of development, which includes flight and mission planning and design. The principal investigator for the CINEMA mission concept is Robin Millan of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
The proposed CINEMA mission aims to improve our understanding of how plasma energy flows into Earth's magnetosphere. This highly dynamic convective flow is unpredictable—sometimes stable, sometimes explosive—producing phenomena such as fast plasma jets, global electric current systems, and spectacular auroras.
“The CINEMA mission will help us probe magnetic convection in Earth's magnetosphere, an important piece of the puzzle for understanding why some space weather events have such a large impact, such as causing magnificent auroras and impacts on ground and space infrastructure, while others seem to fail,” said Joe Westlake, director of the heliophysics division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Using multiple, multipoint measurements to improve predictions of these impacts on people and technology throughout the solar system is a key strategy for future heliophysics research.”
The CINEMA mission constellation of nine small satellites will probe the mystery of convection using a combination of instruments—an energetic particle detector, an aurora detector, and a magnetometer—on each spacecraft in polar Earth orbit. By linking the energetic particles observed in this orbit with simultaneous images of auroras and measurements of the local magnetic field, CINEMA aims to relate energetic activity in the Earth's large-scale magnetic structure to visible signatures, such as the auroras we see in the ionosphere. About $28 million has been allocated to move the mission into Phase B. The total cost of the mission, not including launch, will not exceed $182.8 million. Phase B will last 10 months and, if selected, the mission will begin no earlier than 2030.
NASA has also selected the proposed CMEx (Chromogenic Magnetism Explorer) mission for an extended Phase A study. During this extended phase, the mission must evaluate and refine its design for possible future consideration. The principal investigator for the CMEx mission concept is Holly Gilbert of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The cost of the extended phase A, which will last 12 months, is $2 million.
The CMEx concept is a proposed single-spacecraft mission that would use proven UV spectropolarimetric instruments demonstrated during the NASA mission. CLASP (Spectropolarimeter of the chromospheric layer) rocket flight with suborbital sounding. Using this legacy equipment, CMEx will be able to diagnose the lower layers of the solar chromosphere to understand the origin of solar eruptions and identify the magnetic sources of the solar wind.
Proposed missions completed a year ahead of schedule conceptual study in response to the announcement of the Small Class Explorer (SMEX) program opportunity under the 2022 Heliophysics Explorer Program.
“Space is becoming increasingly important and plays a role in almost everything we do,” said Asal Naseri, acting associate director for heliophysics at NASA Headquarters. “These mission concepts, if implemented in flight, will improve our ability to predict solar events that could harm the satellites we rely on every day and reduce the danger to astronauts near Earth, on the Moon or Mars.”
To learn more about NASA's heliophysics missions, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics
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Abby Interrante / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
301-201-0124 / 202-358-1600
[email protected] / [email protected]
