NASA to Discuss Mission to Earth's Radiation Belt Thursday

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The two RBSP spacecraft will help study the Van Allen Radiation belts that surround Earth.
The two RBSP spacecraft will help study the Van Allen Radiation belts that surround Earth. (Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)

Two soon-to-launch NASA probes designed to study the radiation belts around planet Earth are the topic of a NASA press conference to be held Thursday (Aug. 9).

The Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) will spend two years studying Earth's Van Allen radiation belts, regions of charged particles trapped in corridors around our planet by Earth's magnetic field.

  • Madhulika Guhathakurta, Living With a Star program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington
  • Mona Kessel, RBSP program scientist, NASA Headquarters
  • Barry Mauk, RBSP project scientist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md.
  • Rick Fitzgerald, RBSP project manager, APL, Laurel, Md.

You can watch NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probe briefing live on NASA TV here: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

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