DORGAN ANNOUNCES $3 MILLION FOR AGCAM SCIENCE OPERATIONS CENTER IN GRAND FORKS
System will control camera on the International Space Station from Grand Forks
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551
(GRAND FORKS, ND) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) announced Wednesday that he has secured $3 million in federal funding that will help the University of North Dakota create a control center for the AgCam project, which will be mounted on the International Space Station.
The Science Operations Center will be located in Clifford Hall at UND. It will command the camera, as well as process and distribute the data collected. The pictures taken by the student-made camera will be accessible to farmers and ranchers throughout the Upper Great Plains in order to promote sustainable practices.
“Once again, both the Red River Valley Research Corridor and the University of North Dakota are proving to be centers for technological innovation and progress,” said Dorgan. “The Science Operations Center at UND will allow the talented students and faculty to continue their valuable research by controlling and operating the camera that they worked so hard to create. The farmers of the Upper Great Plains will benefit greatly from this project, and I am proud to say that this major research effort will always have a home here in North Dakota.”
Dorgan, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, secured the funding for the Science Operations Center in the pending FY 2009 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. The Science Operations Center will be the center of all generated commands for AgCam on the space station. The students and faculty there will then process the information and then distribute it to farmers and scientists in the region.
The AgCam project was developed using funding Dorgan secured for UND’s Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC), and is scheduled for a space shuttle launch to the International Space Station on November 10, 2008. The powerful camera will take snapshots of farmland throughout the Upper Great Plains that will allow producers to make informed decisions on planting, crop rotation, and disease control.
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