|
AFTERNOON LIGHT: THE AQUA ERA BEGINS
AQUA
SPACECRAFT LAUNCHED, READY TO STUDY EARTH'S WATER CYCLE
NASA's
latest Earth observing satellite, Aqua, successfully launched
Saturday morning, May 4, 2002, at 2:55 a.m. PDT. Aqua
is dedicated to advancing our understanding of Earth's water
cycle and our environment. Launching the Aqua spacecraft marks
a major milestone in support of NASA's mission to help us
better understand and protect our planet.
The
Aqua spacecraft lifted off from the Western Test Range of
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard a Delta II rocket
at 2:55 a.m. PDT. Spacecraft separation occurred at 3:54 a.m.
PDT. inserting Aqua into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) orbit.
Details
on the Aqua Launch.
Note:
Animation sizes are noted under each image for your information.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
In
the late 1990s, NASA began launching a new generation of research
spacecraft specifically designed to study the Earth so that
we can better understand and protect our home planet. Called
Aqua, the latest addition to NASA's fleet meets a significant
milestone in the agency's pursuit to field a constellation
of integrated observatories.
One of Aqua's greatest strengths is its ability to gather
congruent data with a suite of interrelated instruments. By
making observations of specific planetary features and events
simultaneously with different instruments, experts can begin
to approach scientific questions in terms of "systems"
as opposed to independent inquiries.
Aqua is the result of international partnerships. With its
successful deployment, the Earth science community will have
a major new suite of tools for examining important areas of
research such as climate change, weather, the water cycle,
and much more.
This
high-tech, space-based research observatory is a sibling to
another vehicle called Terra, an Earth science satellite launched
in December 1999. While embodying significant differences,
as siblings they also share many similarities. Both satellites
carry several similar instruments, in addition to their own
separate suites of advanced hardware. Both satellites were
designed to study Earth in systemic ways, with integrated
data collection and analysis cornerstones of their design
intentions. The satellites follow different but related orbits.
Terra makes its observational transits in the morning, while
Aqua takes its readings in the afternoon. Satellites like
Aqua will help us to better understand and protect our home
planet while providing science that will improve life here.
NASA'S
NEW OBSERVATORY LOOKS AT EARTH
In
human terms, water means life. But to Earth scientists around
the world, Aqua means top-notch science, and with the exclamation
mark of a Delta rocket blazing a trail, NASA's latest Earth
observing satellite takes its place on orbit. Home to a suite
of powerful instruments for gathering fundamental information
about interrelated planetary processes like climate change
and the water cycle, Aqua is part of NASA's larger Earth Science
Enterprise, a program dedicated to studying our home planet
from space.
AQUA:
THE SCIENCE OF WATER AND MUCH MORE
A GRAND OBSERVATORY FOR STUDYING OUR HOME
With
the launch of the Aqua spacecraft NASA's Earth Science Enterprise
gains a powerful suite of tools. Flying at an altitude of
438 miles (705 km), the vehicle carries six advanced instruments
designed to study various Earth processes. As part of the
mission design, these instruments are specifically tailored
to work together as well as separately--in essence embodying
the philosophy that if the Earth's processes function in systemic,
interrelated ways, the best way to study the planet is with
sensors that can correlate their findings.
In fact, this strategy goes beyond the bounds of the Aqua
platform alone. As only the latest launch in a series of Earth
observing vehicles, Aqua's instrumentation and data collection
efforts are all part of a larger effort to study the Earth
in systemic terms.
EARTH
SCIENCE PRESENT, EARTH SCIENCE FUTURE
It
used to be that scientists pursued specific questions with
carefully designed experiments and observations in an effort
to uncover a specific answer. But in many fields this paradigm
is changing, perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the study
of the Earth with remote sensing techniques. More often than
ever before experts are designing their explorations of the
natural world in ways that utilize systems oriented approaches.
The Aqua satellite perfectly describes this trend. Beyond
their planned utility as hardware designed to work together,
the six instruments housed by Aqua will also collect information
that can be used in conjunction with data gathered by other
spacecraft in the Earth Observing fleet.
But
what of Aqua itself? The satellite will weigh 6,468 lbs. (2,934
kg) at launch, fully fueled. It will be lifted into space
on a two-stage Delta II 7920-10L rocket, equipped with 9 external
solid rocket motors.
TRW built Aqua's principal "bus" or spacecraft body.
This is the same basic bus that will be used for the used
for the upcoming Aura mission. Standardization of spaceflight
hardware enables projects with similar and related goals to
proceed through their development and fabrication cycles with
comparatively streamlined production requirements.
Satellite designers built Aqua to function on orbit for a
minimum of six years.
LAUNCH
AND DEPLOYMENT
Originally
Aqua had a different name. On the drawing boards, NASA referred
to it as the EOS-PM platform, an acronym describing its organizational
roots and its mission goals. EOS stands for Earth Observing
System, a program presently collecting data about our living
planet from a growing fleet of satellites on orbit. PM indicates
that this new satellite will make measurements in the afternoon,
around 1:30. (On the opposite side of the planet, however,
it will make measurements at 1:30 in the morning.)
This name is closely related to the Terra satellite's former
name. Originally called the EOS-AM platform, Terra's mission
goals are related to Aqua, but as the acronym suggests it
collects data about the Earth in the morning-close to 10:30.
(As you'd expect, Terra will also make nighttime observations
at 10:30 on the Earth's opposite sides.)
Back
to Top Go
to Page Two
|
