[2] The mission is designed to gather information about the microphysics of magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence⁠ — processes that occur in many astrophysical plasmas.

Position data is provided by highly sensitive GPS equipment, while attitude is maintained by four star trackers, two accelerometers, and two Sun sensors.

The second science phase will study reconnection in Earth's magnetic tail (night side operations) for half a year, increasing the orbit to 2,550 by 152,900 km (1,580 by 95,010 mi).

[13] Education and public outreach is a key aspect of the mission, with student activities, data sonification, and planetarium shows being developed.

System engineering, spacecraft bus design, integration and testing has been performed by Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

[2][16] In order to collect the desired science data, the four satellite MMS constellation must maintain a tetrahedral formation through a defined region of interest in a highly elliptical orbit.

[18][19] In 2016, the MMS mission was the first to directly detect magnetic reconnection, the phenomenon which drives space weather in the Earth's magnetosphere.

[4] In August 2019, astronomers reported that MMS made the first high-resolution measurements of an interplanetary shock wave from the Sun.