NASA To Help Human Understand More About Space Weather

NASA during this week has finished the selection of three proposals for missions that could assist better human understanding about space weather, controlled by the Sun that occurs near the Earth. Space weather can negatively impact spacecraft and astronauts by disabling ground-based power grids. In the context that more and more astronauts are being sent into space and human beings progressively rely on technology, the need for such protection becomes ever more urgent.

In particular, the telescope is one of the missions to discover the mechanism. The last mission suggested is called EZIE, which explores the aurora electrode, an electrical current that circulates through the atmosphere near the poles. The mission will require the support from three small satellites (or smallsats) to help to observe the formation of the electrojets and how they evolve to predict storms with higher accuracy, which could lead to the oscillation of the Earth's magnetic fields.

Each mission will be funded with $400,000 for nine-month conceptual research. After that, NASA will decide to select the most feasible project to launch. The additional financial support for one later mission is limited to $ 55 million from Heliophysics Explorers.

NASA is known as a potential agency for calling huge investments in space weather. Until last month, NASA selected proposals for two smallsats that could explore deeper space and potentially improve the models in response to space weather prediction.

As NASA is gearing up to send the first woman to the Moon in 2024, understanding space weather to minimize the impact on both astronauts and spaceships is absolutely essential and meaningful. Especially in the context of higher technology expansion in human life, such protection is a remarkable effort of NASA scientists.