May 4, 2024

HelioSwarm and MUSE: New Sun Missions to Help NASA Unlock the “Mysteries of Our Star”

The objective will also provide complementary observations from heliophysics research study such as the Extreme UltraViolet Spectroscopic Telescope and ground-based observatories.
Picture of the solar atmosphere revealing a coronal mass ejection. Credit: NASA/SDO.
” MUSE will assist us fill crucial gaps in understanding relating to the Sun-Earth connection,” stated Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It will provide more insight into space weather and complements a host of other missions within the heliophysics objective fleet.”.
The primary goal of the MUSE objective is to examine the reasons for coronal heating and instability, such as flares and coronal mass ejections, and gain insight into the fundamental plasma homes of the corona. MUSE will obtain high-resolution pictures of the evolution of solar flare ribbons in a field of view concentrated on a large, active region on the Sun.
The principal detective for the MUSE objective is Bart DePontieu of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (LMATC) of Palo Alto, California. This mission has a budget plan of $192 million. LMATC will provide project management.
HelioSwarm.
The HelioSwarm mission is a constellation or “swarm” of nine spacecraft that will capture the first multiscale in-space measurements of fluctuations in the magnetic field and movements of the solar wind called solar wind turbulence. The Suns outermost atmospheric layer, the heliosphere, includes a huge area of the planetary system. Solar winds spread out through the heliosphere, and their interactions with planetary magnetospheres and interruptions such as coronal mass ejections affect their turbulence.
Artist impression (not to scale) shows how the solar wind forms the magnetospheres of Venus (leading), Earth (middle), and Mars (bottom). Credit: ESA.
Studying solar wind turbulence throughout large locations requires plasma measurements taken simultaneously from different points in space. HelioSwarm includes one center spacecraft and eight co-orbiting little satellites that range in distance from each other and the center spacecraft. The center spacecraft will maintain radio contact with each little satellite. All radio contact between the swarm and Earth will be performed through the center spacecraft and the NASA Deep Space Network of spacecraft communication antennas.
” The technical development of HelioSwarms small satellites operating together as a constellation offers the unique ability to investigate turbulence and its evolution in the solar wind,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Heliophysics Division.
The HelioSwarm objectives principal private investigator is Harlan Spence from the University of New Hampshire. The missions budget plan is $250 million. NASAs Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, will supply job management..
Financing and management oversight for these objectives is supplied by the Heliophysics Explorers Program, managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A mid-level solar flare that peaked at 8:13 p.m. EDT on October 1, 2015, recorded by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA has actually selected 2 science missions– the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) and HelioSwarm– to help improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Sun, the Sun-Earth connection, and the constantly changing space environment. These objectives will provide deeper insights into our universe and deal important info to assist safeguard interactions, astronauts, and satellites signals such as GPS..
” MUSE and HelioSwarm will provide brand-new and much deeper insight into the solar atmosphere and space weather condition,” stated Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These objectives not just extend the science of our other heliophysics missions– they also offer a special perspective and a novel approach to understanding the secrets of our star.”.
MUSE.
The MUSE mission will assist scientists comprehend the forces driving the heating of the Suns corona and the eruptions because outermost area that are at the foundation of space weather condition. The objective will provide much deeper insight into the physics of the solar atmosphere by using an effective instrument called a multi-slit spectrometer to observe the Suns severe ultraviolet radiation and obtain the greatest resolution images ever captured of the solar shift region and the corona.

The principal detective for the MUSE objective is Bart DePontieu of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (LMATC) of Palo Alto, California. The HelioSwarm objective is a constellation or “swarm” of 9 spacecraft that will capture the very first multiscale in-space measurements of fluctuations in the magnetic field and motions of the solar wind known as solar wind turbulence. The Suns outermost climatic layer, the heliosphere, encompasses a huge area of the solar system. Solar winds spread through the heliosphere, and their interactions with planetary magnetospheres and disturbances such as coronal mass ejections impact their turbulence.
Studying solar wind turbulence throughout large locations needs plasma measurements taken concurrently from different points in area.