. EO-1 is on a shakedown cruise of advanced technology land-imaging instruments, he said, built to test out equipment that can have an impact on future Earth-monitoring spacecraft.The $178.6 million EO-1 mission is the first of three New Millennium Program Earth-orbiting missions.
Bryant Cramer, New Millennium program manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said that the hardware aboard EO-1 is "revolutionary as opposed to evolutionary."
Cramer said that EO-1 okays technologies in the space environment, as opposed to validating them in labs, airplanes, balloons or sounding rockets. EO-1 tests, for the first time, five new technologies that can enable new or more cost-effective ways to carry out science missions in years to come.
Along with its high-tech imaging gear, EO-1 will test: a special antenna that can pump out data at super speeds; a pulse plasma thruster to precisely position the satellite; advanced flight control technology and a carbon-carbon radiator to keep spacecraft temperatures under control, as well as a lightweight flexible solar array.
See-through viewing
At the heart of the EO-1 mission you'll find a trio of
Joining the Advanced Land Imager in look-and-see duties is the Hyperion, an instrument that maps Earth in hundreds of spectral bands.
Lastly, a Linear Imaging Spectrometer is on board to study surface reflectance. But this spectrometer is specially outfitted with a unique "atmospheric corrector" device, said Stephen Unger, EO-1 project scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, which manages the mission.
Observing Earth's surface through the atmosphere is akin to viewing the bottom of a lake through cloudy water, Unger said.
The corrector device is designed to compensate for the murky and ever-shifting nature of Earth's atmosphere, Unger said. This ability will give the instrument a see-through-the-air, distortion-free view of our planet.
Seeing double
EO-1 is to be lobbed into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) circular, Sun-synchronous orbit. This orbit allows the spacecraft to follow behind and match the flight path of Landsat 7.
"We are entering a new era in space-based observations."
Making use of autonomous on-board navigation software, EO-1 formation flying with Landsat 7 gives scientists a double-look at common Earth scenes.
The two spacecraft will be within 2 miles (3 kilometers) of each other, said Dale Schulz, Goddard Space Flight Center's EO-1 project manager.
"We want to be able to trail Landsat, to stay precisely one-minute behind Landsat...and view the same piece of the Earth. This will allow imagery to be taken with our three instruments, to make a direct side-by-side comparison with the Landsat images," he said.
Whale watching
The $45 million SAC-C mission hosts a payload of 11 different instruments. A majority of those instruments are dedicated to unraveling the powerful influences on Earth from the Sun, as well as studying our planet's environment and ecology.
John Labrecque, SAC-C program scientist at NASA Headquarters, said one Argentine space agency experiment is a whale of an idea.
SAC-C will begin tracking in January the migratory route of the Franca Southern Right Whale, Labrecque said. Numbers of whales are to be outfitted with transmitters, enabling the SAC-C to monitor whale whereabouts as the spacecraft crosses over the South Atlantic Ocean.
Virtual satellite
With EO-1, SAC-C will become part of a carefully choreographed constellation, also joining Landsat 7, as well as
. Terra will fly in the fourth position of a chain of spacecraft. Terra is last, behind SAC-C, with EO-1 in the second slot, and Landsat 7 at the front of the pack. This artificial "string of pearls" should be a unique sight from Earth, Labrecque said, separated by less than a half-hour.
By flying a suite of sensors in formation, researchers can essentially create one enormous "virtual" satellite by integrating the data collected individually by each smaller instrument.
For NASA's Labrecque, he said he'll have his lawn chair at the ready. "It'll be quite a sight," he said.
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