Hi Becky!

NASA is getting ready to launch the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission to study magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere sometime in late 2014. Magnetic reconnection is an important part of the interaction between Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. MMS will have four satellites flying in formation. The Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) for MMS was partially built by the machine shop here at the University of Iowa. I am running computer simulations of the electron detector part of the EDI to help optimize its performance. We are having a big meeting here next week for everyone involved in MMS to talk about getting the satellites ready to launch. You can read more about MMS here:

http://mms.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

This page will let you see where the various instruments will be on the spacecraft, including EDI:

http://www.nasa.gov/missi...ts.html#.UydD7oU60uQ

And here are some pictures of the FIELDS investigation, including EDI

http://mms-fields.unh.edu/gallery.shtml

Kris

Hi Becky;

There's so much to do. So many neat questions, fundamental research, just so much we do not yet understand. And there are a lot of cool projects that scientists can be involved with (I'm personally involved with the Solar Dynamics Observatory, http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/, and Hinode http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hinode).

The fact is, however, that a lot of research in astronomy, physics, solar science, is funded by the government through NASA, the National Science Foundation, etc. And the funding is not very plentiful right now, so sometimes it is difficult to work on the questions that most excite me or that I think are really interesting and important. We, and maybe someday you, will keep doing research and discovering new things. But sometimes I'll admit, it's frustrating. When I talk with (or blog for) students and see enthusiasm and interest-- I get inspired again! :-)

Hi,

Thank you for your questions. If you are interested in PV, check out my post on jobs in solar. It's a booming industry with a future! We could really use bright gals like you!

Blessings,

Kelly