Title

NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission

Authors

Craig R. Tooley

About the Speaker

Mr. Tooley is currently the project manager for NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. MMS is an in-house Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) heliophysics mission which launch in March of 2015. MMS uses four identical spacecraft, flown in formation in Earth orbit, to make three-dimensional measurements of the plasma in the magnetospheric boundary regions and investigate the fundamental energy transfer process of magnetic reconnection. Mr. Tooley joined the MMS Team as Project Manager in May 2011 and continues to manage the mission through its 6 month on-orbit commissioning phase.

Prior to being assigned as the MMS project manager Mr. Tooley was NASA’s first project manager for the newly formed Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Flight Project. The JPSS Flight Project is responsible for providing the nation’s next generation of polar orbiting weather and climate science satellites in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Before joining JPSS Mr. Tooley was the project manager for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). He was responsible for the development and execution of the LRO mission for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD). LRO was developed in-house at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, was launched on June 18th, 2009, and is successfully operating in lunar orbit. Mr. Tooley received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work on LRO.

Previously, Mr. Tooley was the Head of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Instrument Development Office at GSFC. In this capacity oversaw the development of instruments that were installed in the HST during the 4th HST servicing Mission. During his tenure in the HST Project Mr. Tooley also worked as part of the EVA Servicing Team, which developed procedures and trained astronauts for the successful SM3B servicing mission in 2002.

Prior to working in the HST Project Mr. Tooley served as the Deputy Project Manager for the Triana Project. Triana was a Space Shuttle launched earth science mission which was to provide continuous global observation from a libration point (L1). Mr. Tooley also directly led the engineering development of the in-house Upper Stage and Space Shuttle Airborne Support Equipment required for the Triana mission. Triana (now renamed DSCOVR) was built and fully qualified at GSFC with a NOAA sponsored launch planned for 2015.

During his career at GSFC Mr. Tooley has served as the Mission Manager and Mechanical Engineering Lead for 5 successful Shuttle borne, solar science Spartan missions and held the position of Associate Branch Head of the Carrier Systems Branch. During the first part of his career he worked as an engineer the Mechanical, Attitude Control and Stabilization, and the Mission Analysis groups at GSFC.

Mr. Tooley has been employed by NASA since 1983 and has a background in Mechanical Engineering. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Evansville and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He holds a Senior-Expert level of Project Management certification at NASA and is a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES).

Files

Description

MMS investigates how the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields connect and disconnect, explosively transferring energy from one to the other in a process that is important at the Sun, other planets, and everywhere in the universe, known as magnetic reconnection.

Reconnection limits the performance of fusion reactors and is the final governor of geospace weather that affects modern technological systems such as telecommunications networks, GPS navigation, and electrical power grids. Four identically instrumented spacecraft measure plasmas, fields, and particles in a near-equatorial orbit that will frequently encounter reconnection in action.

Publication Date

4-20-2015

City

Grand Forks, ND

Recommended Citation

Tooley, Craig R., "NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission" (2015). Space Studies Colloquium. 64.
https://commons.und.edu/ss-colloquium/64