Novel space probe warming role tests resistor reliability

摘要

UK based ARCOL Resistors faced a novel challenge when it was asked to provide resistors for a NASA space programme. The THEMIS heliophysics constellation of satellites was commissioned by NASA to investigate what causes auroras in the Earth's atmosphere to dramatically change from slowly shimmering waves of light to wildly shifting streaks of colour. The aim is to provide scientists with information on how the planet's magnetosphere and all-important Sun-Earth connection work. Now in its sixth year in space, THEMIS is helping to show how even small variations in the magnetosphere can sometimes cause extreme space weather.