NASA | ARTEMIS Orbits Magnetic Moon

Launched in 2007, NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have now successfully completed their 2 year mission to determine the cause of geomagnetic substorms. Because they are continuing to work perfectly, NASA is re-directing the outermost two spacecraft to special orbits at and around the Moon. This new mission, which is called ARTEMIS, uses some very complex maneuvers over two years (2009-2010) to get both spacecraft into position.

As the Moon orbits the Earth, it passes in and out of the Earth's magnetic field and the million-mile per hour stream of particles emitted by the Sun known as the solar wind. While in these regions, the two ARTEMIS spacecraft will seek evidence for turbulence, particle acceleration, and magnetic reconnection, three fundamental phenomena that control the nature of the solar wind's interaction with the Earth's magnetosphere. Employing their full complement of instruments and unique two-point vantage points, the spacecraft will study the vacuum the Moon carves out in the solar wind, and the processes that eventually fill this lunar wake. Nearer the Moon, they will observe the effects of surface electric fields, ions sputtered off the lunar surface, and determine the internal structure of the Moon from transient variations in its magnetic field induced by external changes.

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• Category

  Science & Technology

[uzimachi1]

Science rules

[David Vela]

sounds like a 10 year old....cool...

[cameron heer]

sounds like a 9 year old talking of a script lol

[DivineDivinity1999]

mother of god... the moon looks like a sperm XD

[Ta3iapxHs]

nice!

[HemiHead66]

I don't buy any of this crap. You've got retired Military, Govt., Pilots, even our own Astronauts ratting out the Military Industrial Complex left and right. I know they've got bases on the Moon. You can see all kinds of stuff on the Moon in those older poorly covered up photos. So now they're back-tracking to fix them. Just compare the old ones to the ones, everything just magically disappears. If it was up to me I'd pull all of NASA's funding and throw their ass in the dumpster.

[metal220]

i have no idea what this means. stop tlkn in foreign language. i just needed help in dead space 2

[davea0511]

Also FYI ... Bell Labs did this work with funding provided by both the space program and the Defense Dept so they could shrink transistors from tubes down to something smaller, faster, and lower power. Also there's still some debate who gets the credit ... many give it to National Semiconductor who also were funded for the project for the same reason. Wonder why the US is rich? Technological superiority ... thanks in part to NASA developments unfundable in any other way.

[davea0511]

@w4csc

Like I said ... it's good to be wary ... but know what you're nixing before you give it the axe.  In my experience few if any NASA haters take the time to honestly and thoroughly study the issue from both sides. While I'm a big support of NASA, you might be surprised to learn I'm also borderline libertarian. NASA does far less per $ invested that invades your privacy compared to most Gov't programs. It's the satellite corp's using russian rockets that worry me far more than NASA.

[davea0511]

No, you're exactly right that anything funded by the gov't should be suspect. I do NOT deny that. I do not however think it's a bit extreme to dismiss anything funded by the gov't out of hand, when we have the right to demand transparency - and regarding NASA funding transparency is there. We know exactly what is being built, how it can be used, etc. etc. Knowledge is your friend, w4csc, not the enemy. But, yes, tis good to be wary. I am.

[onefugowie]

your right i found its traveling at 67,062.00 MPH ...

in its travel across the universe towards Vega

[Jouwl]

I was trying to be funny, actually. But hey that's interesting information.