Black Shield for MMS Mission

Black Shield for MMS Mission

Epner Technology, Inc. has proudly been selected by the Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, to provide its unmatched experience and quality services for NASA's Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission, under their Solar Terrestrial Probe (STP) program.  The mission is currently in the preliminary design stage and is scheduled to launch August 2014.  The objective will be to investigate and acquire in-depth data on magnetic reconnection. 

"MMS will determine the small-scale basic plasma processes, which transport, accelerate and energize plasmas in thin boundary and current layers - which control the structure and dynamics of the Earth's magnetosphere.  MMS will pave the way for future Constellation-type missions (Southwest Research Institute)."

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is managing the MMS mission, with a number of contributing working groups, such as Southwest Research Institute, Lockheed Martin, UCLA and UC Berkeley, among others.  As one NASA program manager put it, "NASA is flying the bus, and the other instruments are the kids." 

Epner's contribution to the MMS process proved to be critical.  Epner's undertaking was to coat the "heart" of the Electrostatic analyzer, which filters out electron particles, specifically with Laser Black, which in the end met and even exceeded initial expectations by the MMS project team.  For more information on this fascinating project, click on the link below.

MMS Mission Homepage
SwRI Project Homepage
SwRi Press Release