Mission Overview
The HelioSwarm Observatory's simultaneous multipoint measurements across length scales, ranging from MHD (3000 km) to sub-ion (50 km) scales, in polyhedral and 3D configurations provide the critical observations required for science closure.
HelioSwarm will include the development of a suite, or swarm, of nine spacecraft to observe turbulence in the solar wind — charged particles released from the Sun — and the interplanetary magnetic field. One large spacecraft, known as the “hub,” and eight smaller spacecraft, called the “nodes,” will co-orbit to monitor the ever-changing turbulence in space to reveal for the first time how these variations look in three dimensions and how they evolve. The hub spacecraft will maintain radio contact with each small satellite and all radio contact between the swarm and Earth will be conducted through the hub spacecraft and the NASA Deep Space Network of spacecraft communication antennas.
