Launch Date: August 14, 2014 Mission Project Home Page -
http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov/ MMS will investigate how the Sun's and
Earth's magnetic fields connect and disconnect, explosively
transferring energy from one to the other in a process that is
important at the Sun, other planets, and everywhere in the
universe, known as magnetic reconnection. Reconnection limits
the performance of fusion reactors and is the final governor of
space weather that affects modern technological systems such as
telecommunications networks, GPS navigation, and electrical
power grids. Four identically instrumented spacecraft will
measure plasmas, fields, and particles in a near-equatorial
orbit that will frequently encounter reconnection in action. MMS
will reveal, for the first time, the small-scale three-
dimensional structure and dynamics of the elusively thin and
fast-moving electron diffusion region. It will do this in both
of the key reconnection regions near Earth, where the most
energetic events originate. The four identically