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The Swarm Constellation Will Look Inside the Earth
Roland Piquepaille writes "Among six Earth Explorer candidate missions, the European Space Agency (ESA) has chosen a 'Swarm' of satellites to look inside the Earth and to do the best survey ever of the Earth's geomagnetic field. The mission, scheduled for launch in 2009, will consist of three satellites released by a single rocket. Two will fly side-by-side 450 km above us while the third one will cruise at an altitude of 530 km. In "ESA to probe Earth's magnetic field," the Register also looks at this future mission which will lead to a better analysis of the Sun's influence in our solar system. More details and illustrations are available in this overview."
has slashdot's magnetic polarization pushed all the comment posters away from this story?
I just hope there is still a magnetic field by then...
--You're BOTH right. It's a floor wax AND a desert topping!
But in the midst of probing the geomagnetic field, the satellites will accidentally cause our Earth's core to stop spinning. This will undoubtedly cause mass chaos in the world. As a result, we will require the services of a geophysicists and a gung-ho team of scientific explorers who will risk their necks by attempting to detonate a nuclear device in order to jump start the core and get it spinning again. Wow, this would be a great plot for a movie... wait... nevermind.