Millennium spacecraft readies for key NASA TRACERS mission tests

Millennium spacecraft readies for key NASA TRACERS mission tests
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 13, 2024

Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing (NYSE: BA) subsidiary, has successfully completed two spacecraft for NASA's TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission, aimed at studying the interaction between solar wind and Earth's magnetic field.

"TRACERS will ultimately inform how we understand space weather," said Dave Machuga, CEO of Millennium Space Systems. "From a national security space perspective, this is incredibly important to understanding the environment our satellites - or any satellites - operate in."

The current phase involves integrating instruments designed to study the magnetic and electric field changes, plasma particles, and waves while in orbit. Once the integration is complete, the spacecraft will undergo rigorous environmental testing before being sent to Vandenberg Space Force Base for launch.

"TRACERS will determine fundamental properties of the process that connects the solar wind to near-Earth space and ultimately drives space weather," commented David Miles, Principal Investigator of the TRACERS mission and F Wendell Miller Associate Professor at the University of Iowa. "Understanding this magnetic reconnection process addresses a priority science target in NASA's Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space Physics and improves our understanding of the space weather environment around our planet."

Following its launch into a sun-synchronous orbit, the spacecraft will be operated by Millennium Space Systems, collecting data as it moves along Earth's polar cusp regions. These areas of Earth's magnetic field open above the north and south magnetic poles.

"The TRACERS Instrument Suite incorporates five different instruments from four different institutions, each presenting unique accommodation," noted Richard Prasad, TRACERS program manager at Millennium Space Systems. "Millennium adapted a standard ALTAIR bus to a spin-stabilized platform, with strict magnetic and electrostatic cleanliness requirements."

The mission's primary goal is to collect data on magnetic reconnection and cusp electrodynamics, crucial components in space weather dynamics. By exploring the interactions between solar wind and the magnetosphere within the cusp region, TRACERS aims to enhance our understanding of Earth's magnetosphere and its response to solar wind variations. Such insights are key to advancing space weather forecasting, which impacts vital technology and infrastructure.

The University of Iowa leads the TRACERS mission, managed by the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, oversees the project through its Heliophysics Explorers Program Office.