{"id":249539,"date":"2025-07-11T05:19:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T19:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=a8c6f2139b5e1c04eba800b81beedbeb"},"modified":"2025-07-11T05:19:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T19:19:38","slug":"nasa-to-brief-media-on-new-mission-to-study-earths-magnetic-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=249539","title":{"rendered":"NASA to Brief Media on New Mission to Study Earth\u2019s Magnetic Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission will help scientists understand an explosive process called magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth\u2019s atmosphere. <\/div>\n
Credit: University of Iowa\/Andy Kale<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 17, to share information about the agency\u2019s upcoming Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS, mission, which is targeted to launch no earlier than late July.<\/p>\n

The TRACERS mission is a pair of twin satellites that will study how Earth\u2019s magnetic shield \u2014 the magnetosphere \u2014 protects our planet from the supersonic stream of material from the Sun called solar wind. As they fly pole to pole in a Sun-synchronous orbit, the two TRACERS spacecraft will measure how magnetic explosions send these solar wind particles zooming down into Earth\u2019s atmosphere \u2014 and how these explosions shape the space weather that impacts our satellites, technology, and astronauts.<\/p>\n

Also launching on this flight will be three additional NASA-funded payloads. The Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost<\/a>) SmallSat, led by NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is designed to demonstrate an innovative, configurable way to put remote-sensing instruments into orbit faster and more affordably. The Polylingual Experimental Terminal<\/a> technology demonstration, managed by the agency\u2019s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program, will showcase new technology that empowers missions to roam between communications networks in space, like cell phones roam between providers on Earth. Finally, the Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss (REAL) CubeSat, led by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, will use space as a laboratory to understand how high-energy particles within the bands of radiation that surround Earth are naturally scattered into the atmosphere, aiding the development of methods for removing these damaging particles to better protect satellites and the critical ground systems they support.<\/p>\n

Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency\u2019s website at:<\/p>\n

nasa.gov\/live<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Participants include:<\/p>\n