NASA announced Monday it has chosen the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., to develop and operate two satellites for the agency's Radiation Belt Storm Probe, to be launched in 2012.
The mission, part of NASA's Living With a Star Program, will investigate the interactions of Earth's radiation belts and magnetic fields with solar storms. Scientists will use the science results to develop space weather predictions.
Under the contract – the terms of which remain to be determined – APL will begin selecting science instruments later this year. The mission will be the second in the LWS Program. The first, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, is planned for launch in 2008 and will investigate solar variability.
