The month of December will see the launch of three NASA
\nresearch missions to help us better understand and protect
\nour home planet while continuing to search for life in our
\nuniverse and inspire the next generation of explorers.<\/p>\n
\nThe ICESat, CHIPS and SeaWinds missions will help improve
\nlife here while searching for life beyond Earth.<\/p>\n
ICESat (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite) is the
\nbenchmark NASA mission for measuring ice-sheet mass balance –
\n– knowledge vital to understanding and protecting our home
\nplanet.<\/p>\n
The ICESat mission will use a laser instrument to provide
\nmulti-year elevation data needed to determine ice-sheet mass
\nbalance. The spacecraft also will provide surface and
\nvegetation data around the globe, in addition to specific
\ncoverage over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.<\/p>\n
ICESat is due to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
\nCalif. on Dec. 19 at approximately 7:45 p.m. EST. Once in its
\nfinal orbital position, the satellite will orbit the Earth at
\nan altitude of approximately 373 miles (600 kilometers).<\/p>\n
"This mission will provide revolutionary insight into changes
\nin ice and the role ice plays in our Earth system, using a
\nspaceborne laser to look at the topography of ice both in the
\nAntarctic and Greenland," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, NASA’s
\nAssociate Administrator for Earth Science. "This information
\nwill help scientists determine whether the polar ice sheets
\nare growing or shrinking, and how the ice masses may change
\nunder future climate conditions," Asrar said.<\/p>\n
The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System, or "GLAS" instrument,
\non ICESat will use a laser to measure the time it takes for
\nlight to travel to the reflecting object and return to the
\nsatellite. The data on the distance to the surface, the
\nposition of the satellite in space, and the pointing of the
\nlaser are all combined to calculate the elevation and
\nposition of each point measurement on the Earth. The laser
\nwill perform these measurements 40 times each second.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies
\nCorporation (Ball) in Boulder, Colo. NASA’s Earth Science
\nData and Information System will provide space and ground
\nnetwork support and the University of Colorado’s Laboratory
\nfor Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, will team with
\nBall to provide mission operations and flight dynamics
\nsupport. The GLAS and ICESat data will be initially processed
\nat the ICESat Investigator-led Processing System facility
\nwith support from the University of Texas’s Center for Space
\nResearch, Austin.<\/p>\n
Launching with ICESat is NASA’s first University-Class
\nExplorer mission, a suitcase-sized satellite called the
\nCosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS), designed
\nto explore the birthplace of solar systems. CHIPS will study
\nvery hot, very low-density gas in the vast spaces between the
\nstars, known as the interstellar medium, searching for
\nimportant clues about formation and evolution of galaxies.<\/p>\n
The interstellar medium literally contains the seeds of
\nfuture stars, and all the stars we see were once formed out
\nof the same kind of diffuse gas and dust. When the gas in the
\ninterstellar medium cools and collapses, the gas forms clumps
\nthat scientists believe evolve into stars and planets. One of
\nthe biggest puzzles in astrophysics is the process that turns
\nthis very diffuse, hot and cold gas and dust into stars.<\/p>\n
Our solar system is located in a region of space scientists
\ncall the Local Bubble, which is about 300 light-years in
\ndiameter and is filled with gas much less dense than the
\naverage interstellar medium. This gas also is extremely hot –
\n– about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, or about 180 times as
\nhot as the surface of our Sun. It is this extremely diffuse
\ngas inside the Local Bubble that the CHIPS mission is
\nstudying.<\/p>\n
The CHIPS satellite weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds) and is
\nthe size of a large suitcase. It will orbit about 590
\nkilometers (367 miles) above the Earth and is expected to
\noperate for one year.<\/p>\n
The CHIPS satellite is sponsored by the Office of Space
\nScience at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The CHIPS
\ninstrument was built at the Space Science Laboratory of the
\nUniversity of California, Berkeley, and the spacecraft bus
\nwas built by SpaceDev, Inc. of Poway, Calif. The project is
\nmanaged at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops
\nFlight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., through the NASA
\nExplorers Program.<\/p>\n
A third NASA mission, SeaWinds, is NASA’s latest Earth-
\nmonitoring instrument for measuring the speed and direction
\nof winds over Earth’s oceans. Set to launch aboard Japan’s
\nAdvanced Earth Observing Satellite II (Adeos II) at 8:31 p.m.
\nEST on Dec.13 from the Tanegashima Space Center, the mission
\nis expected to yield improved global weather forecasts and
\nnew insights into various Earth research investigations.<\/p>\n
"Winds play a major role in every aspect of Earth’s weather,"
\nAsrar said. "They directly affect the turbulent exchanges of
\nheat, moisture and greenhouse gases between Earth’s
\natmosphere and the ocean that drive ocean circulation and
\nclimate. The SeaWinds instrument will provide a critical tool
\nfor improving weather forecasting, detecting and monitoring
\nsevere marine storms, identifying subtle changes in the
\nglobal climate and better understanding global weather
\nabnormalities, such as El Nino and La Nina. NASA is pleased
\nto partner with Japan on this important endeavor."<\/p>\n
The mission will help scientists determine the location,
\nstructure and strength of severe marine storms — hurricanes
\nin the Atlantic, typhoons near Asia and mid-latitude cyclones
\nworldwide — which are among the most destructive of all
\nnatural phenomena. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
\nAdministration (NOAA), a chief mission partner, will use the
\ndata to improve weather forecasting and storm warnings,
\nhelping forecasters more accurately determine the paths and
\nintensities of tropical storms and hurricanes.<\/p>\n
SeaWinds will map wind speed and direction across 90 percent
\nof the Earth’s ice-free oceans every two days. Up to 15 times
\na day, Adeos II will beam down SeaWinds science data to
\nground stations operated by NASA and the National Space
\nDevelopment Agency of Japan, which will relay them to
\nscientists and weather forecasters.<\/p>\n
SeaWinds is a scatterometer, which transmits high-frequency
\nmicrowave pulses to the ocean surface and measures the
\n"backscattered," or echoed, pulses as they are bounced back
\nto the satellite. The instruments sense ripples caused by
\nwinds near the ocean’s surface, from which scientists can
\ncompute the winds’ speed and direction.<\/p>\n
The 200-kilogram (441-pound) SeaWinds instrument will be
\nlaunched aboard the Adeos II satellite by a Japanese H-IIA
\nrocket. The satellite will circle Earth every 101 minutes at
\nan altitude of 803 kilometers (499 miles). The SeaWinds
\ninstrument will make approximately 400,000 measurements every
\nday.<\/p>\n
SeaWinds is managed for NASA’s Office of Earth Science,
\nWashington, by JPL, which developed the instrument and
\nperforms instrument operations and science-data processing,
\narchiving and distribution. The Japanese Space Agency
\nprovided the Adeos II spacecraft, H-IIA launch vehicle,
\nmission operations and the Japanese ground network. NOAA
\nprovides near-real-time data processing and distribution for
\nSeaWinds operational data users.<\/p>\n
More information about the ICESat program is available at:
\nhttp:\/\/icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov\/intro.html
\nMore information on the CHIPS is available at:
\nhttp:\/\/chips.ssl.berkeley.edu
\nMore information on the SeaWinds on Adeos II is available at:
\nhttp:\/\/winds.jpl.nasa.gov\/missions\/SeaWinds\/seaindex.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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