July 14, 2005

Cluster Spacecraft Reach Greatest Separation at Fifth Anniversary

ESA -- The four spacecraft of ESA's Cluster fleet have reached their greatest distance from each other in the course of their mission to study Earth's magnetosphere in three dimensions.
This operation, marking the fifth anniversary of Cluster in space, transforms Cluster in the first "Ëœmulti-scale' mission ever.



But now this new "Ëœasymmetric' flying formation is allowing the Cluster spacecraft to make measurements of medium- and large-scale phenomena simultaneously, transforming Cluster in the first ever "Ëœmulti-scale' mission.




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Cluster Mission

During the course of the mission, the distance between the Cluster satellites had already changed five times, in a range between 100 and 5000 kilometres. Varying the size - but not the shape - of the Cluster "Ëœconstellation' had allowed Cluster to examine Earth's magnetosphere at different scales. The knowledge gained by Cluster about the magnetosphere "“ the natural magnetic shield that surrounds and protects our planet "“ has already helped advance our understanding of how the solar wind affects Earth's natural space environment.