NASA's heliophysics mission 'TRACERS' gets one step closer to launch

NASA said on Monday its Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), an upcoming mission to study the dynamics of the magnetic field surrounding the Earth, has passed a critical mission review. With this successful review, the mission has advanced toward its target launch readiness date of July 27, 2024.

The 'Key Decision Point C' evaluated the mission's preliminary design and program plan to achieve launch by its target launch readiness. The next phase, Phase C, includes the final design of the mission and building of the two satellites.

TRACERS is a pair of satellites that will study how the solar wind, the continuous stream of ionized particles escaping the Sun and pouring out the space, interacts with Earth's magnetosphere - a process known as magnetic reconnection. According to NASA, a reconnection event can shoot solar wind particles, normally diverted around our planet, directly into our atmosphere at high speed.

The mission will fly through the polar cusp, a point where Earth's magnetic field dips down toward the ground. The particles that pass through the cusp carry signatures of the magnetic interactions that happen where the solar wind meets Earth's magnetosphere.

TRACERS will repeatedly fly through the northern polar cusp, one satellite behind the other, to study where and how often reconnection happens at the outer edges of Earth's magnetic field. The findings will help NASA safeguard its technology and astronauts in space.

NASA's TRACERS mission has passed a key milestone, advancing towards its planned 2024 launch. Led by the University of Iowa, TRACERS will fly through a "hole" in Earth's magnetic field to better understand how Earth connects to the Sun.More: https://t.co/MwEGbTQtMM pic.twitter.com/96oCTAh9FX

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) April 4, 2022