NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS)

Hello HN! I work on a spaceflight mission planning application called FreeFlyer. I recently toured NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and learned about this incredibly cool mission called MMS that uses our software[1].

There are 4 spacecraft in a tight formation that form a tetrahedron as they approach apogee. On perigee, they switch to a string of pearls formation (I’ve also heard it referred to as a “bananoid”). After being deployed in orbit, each spacecraft deployed four 200ft long wire booms (on the sides) and two axial booms (top and bottom). The closest the spacecraft have ever been to each other is 7.2km (4.47mi), which is absolute clowntown given their speed.

They flew so close together that they won a Guinness World Record[2]! The mission won _another_ record for navigating with GPS signals farther from Earth than ever before[3]. It’s probably one of the coolest missions I’ve ever seen and an incredibly impressive feat of engineering.

Edit: Link formatting

[1] https://ai-solutions.com/_help_Files/demos_smp.htm#achr_mms

[2] https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/420223-cl...

[3] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-s-mms-breaks-...