The MMS-SMART Mission

The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) will study magnetic reconnection in space. A three-phase orbit strategy will inspect the most likely reconnection sites in the magnetopause and the magnetotail. Data gained from these three phases will evaluate our theories involving reconnection and will lead to fundamental advances in our knowledge of the subject.

Goals and Design

Overall Objective

To obtain an understanding of the reconnection process including the factors that influence it, its spatial distribution, and its temporal behavior.

Primary Goals

  1. To investigate the kinetic processes responsible for collisionless magnetic reconnection and to discover how it begins
  2. To identify where magnetic reconnection occurs in the magnetopause and the magnetotail
  3. To study the factors that influence the location of the magnetic reconnection
  4. To understand how the reconnection process varies through time and to recognize the factors that influence its temporal behavior
  5. To comprehend flux transfer, flux rope formation, and flux rope evolution

Secondary Goals

  1. To grasp the role of inductive electric fields and wave-particle interactions in acceleration processes
  2. To distinguish the properties and processes associated with magnetospheric turbulence

Design Features

  1. 4 spacecrafts in a tetrahedron form
  2. 4 orbit phases are included
  3. A minimum of 2 years in orbit
  4. Communication and ranging between different spacecrafts
  5. A spin rate of 20 revolutions per minute