NASA has successfully launchedfive rockets in five minutes inside the Anomalous Transport Rocket experiment(Atrex) with which the US space agency intends to track the high-altitude winds of the Earth, about 60 or 65 kilometers from the planet’s surface.
According to experts, this is a great success for the space agency, which had to delay the launch of this mission on several occasions. First due to minor technical problems and, later, due to weather conditions. Launching this experiment was difficult, since, for such a launch, “completely clear skies” are needed in a fairly wide radius from the launch point.
Regarding the objective of the mission, NASA has indicated that winds rotate around the Earth at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour and whose origin is unknown. As scientists have pointed out, these winds are in the same region where strong electrical currents are produced in the ionosphere, therefore, it is a region with a large amount of electrical turbulence, the type that can negatively affect satellite communications and radio.
According to NASA, the experiment is designed togain a better understanding of high altitude windsand help scientists to have amore detailed map of electromagnetic regions of space that can damage artificial satellitesand disrupt communications systems. The experiment could also help explain how the effects of atmospheric disturbances in one part of the planet can be transported to other parts in just a day or two.
