VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Vandenberg SFB invites the public to a presentation on NASA’s upcoming TRACERS satellite mission, a groundbreaking initiative designed to deepen scientific understanding of the Sun-Earth connection.
The event will take place on Monday, July 21, from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Vandenberg Space Force Base Space and Missile Technology Center, located at 1335 Marshallia Ranch Rd, Lompoc, CA 93437. No base access is required to attend.
The presentation will feature leading NASA scientists and experts, including Norman Phelps, TRACERS Mission Manager for NASA Launch Services; Dr. David Miles, Principal Investigator for TRACERS and an astrophysicist at the University of Iowa; and Dr. Joseph Westlake, Director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division. Together, they will provide insights into the TRACERS mission and its role in advancing heliophysics research.
The TRACERS mission, which stands for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The mission aims to study magnetic reconnection, a critical process that occurs when solar activity interacts with Earth’s magnetic field. This phenomenon has significant effects on Earth’s atmosphere and understanding it will help scientists better predict and prepare for the impact of solar activity on our planet.
“Magnetic reconnection is one of the most fundamental processes in space physics, and TRACERS will provide unprecedented insights into how energy flows from the Sun to Earth,” said Dr. Miles. “This mission represents a major step forward in our understanding of the processes that cause space weather.”
The TRACERS mission will work in tandem with other NASA missions, including the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), which studies magnetic reconnection from space; the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH), which investigates the solar wind; and the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE), which explores interactions in Earth’s atmosphere. By combining observations from these missions, scientists aim to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how energy from the Sun flows through Earth’s magnetosphere and atmosphere.
Managed by the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, and led by Dr. Miles at the University of Iowa, the TRACERS mission is supported by NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program Office at Goddard Space Flight Center. The mission also involves contributions from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley.
This presentation is a unique opportunity for the public to learn about cutting-edge space science and its implications for our understanding of the Sun-Earth system.