Spacecraft try to avoid the Van Allen Radiation Belts, two doughnut-shaped regions around Earth filled with “killer electrons” and plasma waves. NASA launched two heavily-shielded spacecraft directly into the belts. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes are on a two-year mission to study the Van Allen Belts and to unravel the mystery of their unpredictability.
NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes blasted off from Cape Canaveral on August 30th, 2012. Bristling with sensors, the heavily-shielded spacecraft are on a 2-year mission to discover what makes the radiation belts so dangerous and so devilishly unpredictable.
When the radiation belts were discovered in 1958, they upended orthodox ideas. Most people assumed the space around Earth was empty. America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, proved otherwise. The tiny spacecraft was equipped with a Geiger tube for counting energetic protons and electrons. Circling Earth, Explorer 1 found so many charged particles that the counter registered off-scale most of the time.
Back in the 1950s the radiation belts had little effect on ordinary people. Today they are crucial to our high-tech society. Hundreds of satellites used for everything from weather prediction to GPS to television routinely skim the belts, subjecting themselves to energetic particles that can damage solar panels and short-circuit sensitive electronics. During geomagnetic storms when the belts are swollen by solar activity, whole fleets of satellites can be engulfed, imperiling the technological underpinnings of daily life on the planet below.
One of the biggest mysteries of the radiation belts is the crazy way they react to solar storms. “Almost anything can happen.
When a storm cloud from the sun hits the radiation belts, they often respond in counterintuitive ways. One possible outcome is that the radiation belts fill with energetic particles such as the potent “killer electrons” that worry mission planners. However, just as often the opposite happens. A solar storm can cause the belts to lose their killer particles, temporarily making them a safer place. And sometimes nothing happens! The belts remain completely unchanged.
Source and author: ScienceAtNASA * phys.org Radiation
always been suspicious of this topic.
Well, good morning ! This is important–I have been working to alert folks on the sun effect on human personality and technology and this will really help. Most folks are ablivious of the enviornment around our planet. It is hard enough to stay in touch with the weather on the ground. As the sun goes into a hyperactive stage of increased sneezing, it is important to know what to expect. I am hoping NASA will use this as an alert system at the public level..Knowing when and if the infrastructure of power will be affected and how it will be affected is very important..Thanks for the heads up on this subject..Nameste’, Marina -8:44am – edt – 9/1/12 -USA
Hm i wonder if this is the probe thats suppose to orbit outter earth magnetic field and find small invisible “dimentional portals” i know NASA is suppose to send one in 2014. Hopefully that leads the next generation into finding the secerets of the relation of earth to sun. Seeing that when the suns rays grind with earths barrier itll open those holes. Anyways governmental black ops know decades more than the ordinary person… why wont they release real knowledge
@MericyTreats-I did not know NASA is going to send a probe to discover ‘diamentional portals’ in 2014. I would suggest on your ‘black ops’ comment that there are many technological things as well as financial things that are criteria prior to doing any project. As they so well pointed out here, many dangers lurk in unknown space..there are elements and energies that are unknown and impossible to prove exist without some methodology to prove their existance. They did mention here that this is a long worked on project and much unexpected data has been recieved in the time it has been ‘in the works’.
This indicates to me that not only is there a lot they are not telling the public but there is a whole lot they themselves do not know. This is not a single answer business this space exploration thing. Just the recognition of the unexpected sun activity in this recent solar cycle is an indication of what is not known. I am willing to take NASA at face value on this. This is not to say that the organization has not applied a good deal of secrecy to events and phenomena that not only they do not understand but they are sure the general public will not understand.
Perhaps then, it is better to use the term ‘black ops’ in reference to military things. This is, as described to me by a ‘black ops’ guy, a more accurate use. What is happening in the NASA secrecy behavior is, and I quote here, mostly because ” alot of the time, they are just guessing and in that, they often are proven wrong”. That is how science works.
Now mind you, this does not include such insanity as ‘project paperclip’ and on and on..At the same time, we are forced to look behind us at the moment in history much of that often cruel foolishness occured. Those who ignore their history are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunatly, while we should be bright and shining in this dawning of the digital age, we are far from it. Will that crazy behavior continue..Unfortunatly – yes – That is just how it is..
Nameste’, Marina – 6:56pm-edt-9/1/12 -USA
Most in the ‘in the works’ projects that started in the 60s/70s are in prototype and some being re-engineered but i figure anything thats still in development is far beyond commercial products. i remember hearing this quote by a source in a documentary… “They have the technology to take E.T home, However it isnt in the interest or wasnt worth the effort to produce more”
With paperclip that was when America took German scientist after ww2. At the same time America started adopting the idea of eugenics. Its all funded by the federal reserve. Notice how 9trillion went to bailouts to bank… Yet nobody knows what; where did it get put to use to. On avg 1/3 of the GDP gets put into military/black projects.
Anyways trial and error. Lives/expenses are expendable
Once again , we wonder about the so called Moon landings ? The easy quick trip to the Moon and back without even touching the Belts. Nasa was so with the useof their massive computors with its tiny calcuating capacities.
Mstifnot all the so called Space Moon group is either dead and gone, or may have Alzeimers, so … now the Moon trip is official, and it did take place ?
Just think about the distance of the International Space Station from Earth, and you know why its so padded and protected.
1969 Moon Landing ? Yet, only now are we actualy trying to find a landing spoton the Moon. Don’t forget Mars ? With all those particles and cra.p in the cosmos, it actualy does not sound, as if we ever left the Earth at all !
But, then dreams are good for money laundering, to continue with effort to say, that the USA did land on the Moon first.
Vietnam was a pain in the neck, and all the minds had tobe pushed into another direction. Dont even think about the enormous financial Funding of the War, plus the space endevours ! Wow !… where did all the m oney come from ?
Is it not incredible ?
Please dont jump up and say ” We did , we did !’ I just think we never did at all !
Regards
@Andrew–Hi, how ya doing? I need to say that–actually we did go to the moon. The data is there even if I don’t have it here. There is no question that these events occured and there is no question that the humans who were on that satilite – were on that satilite. Actually, it is a mute question long since over come with other questions that seem to multiply as the technology has improved. The more NASA sees, the less they know, the less they know the quieter they get.
I do see some loosening up however..They are really stuck now. With all those fancy cameras and such, the more technology they get, the more technology we the public snoopers get. I think it will balance out in the end. The thing is, most folks are really not ready to know the realiety of what waits behind the censors curtain. It has taken me 40 years to get used to the idea that – indeed – we are not alone and the concept that – indeed – we may well have been transplanted here from the planet Mars. As a matter of fact, I am just getting my mind around the mind boggling concept that the moon is actually a space ship…I mean, how many folks do you know who would accept that on the first run?
Does it matter if we know? Well, maybe. Perhaps John Lear was absolutely correct when he suggested we would be far better off just tending to our families and gardens and living as well as we can..cause, face it, we are all gunna die one way or the other and the majority of us really don’t need the stress of KNOWING anything all that enormous.
But like I said before, the more NASA discovers the less they are able to say. None the less, I do think they are TRYING to let this story unfold tiny nano-bits at a time. I am arguing for patience here. As I watch the revelations unfold in my own family, I really gotta tell ya–this is very-very hard.
Nameste’, Marina-5:53pm -edt-9/2/12 – USA