ADMIN NOTE: Please note that this topic was unavoidably poltical before the 'No Politics' rule. Please restrict future comments to the mission/spacecraft/news updates etc.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 6 Jan 06 Washington, DC
DEEP SPACE CLIMATE OBSERVATORY KILLED.
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/index.html

Actually, as I recall, Gore's original plan was simply to "inspire schoolchildren" with continuous video views of Earth -- the climate instruments were added at the insistence of NASA's science advisors and the National Academy of Sciences (which did an official appraisal of Triana's sciencce value in its revised form). While Gore's original idea strikes me as moronic, those other experiments ARE important, and I hope they're added as piggybacks to the other solar astronomy satellites scheduled to be hung soon at the L-1 Sun-Earth point. In fact, I think it's time for us to start raising hell on the subject, since otherwise this is unlikely to be done under this stinkbomb of an administration.

Repeat After Me:

TRIANA

MUST

FLY

ON

SHUTTLE


There is NO way given the state of the fleet that the scientific returns of the mission justify a shuttle flight under the post-Columbia, post-RTF situation. That's not to say the individual instruments shouldn't fly...but as long as they were on this platform, they were going to be doing nothing but provide a continuous view of a (cough) University of Maryland clean room.

I'm a heck of a lot more agitated about the LANDSAT disaster than this mercy killing.

I'm sorry, but Bob Park is letting his partisanship get in the way of his reason.

It seems a bit, well, daft, to have a 100% built spacecraft and then just not to fly it. If Phoenix can fly after MPL, then surely Triana could be flown. After all, there are lots of developmental flights which have concrete rather than spacvecraft aboard. Or there's even Russia, or ESA, or China, or Japan... ...or Mr Musk.

Bob Shaw

According to this document, it is apparently illegal to fly Triana on the Space Shuttle:

http://oig.nasa.gov/old/inspections_assessments/g-99-013.pdf

But I agree with those who say that the satellite has real scientific and educational merit and having it sit in a warehouse collecting dust is a waste.

You misunderstand that document. That is the OIG report designed to highlight the false accounting NASA was engaged in, not a finding of law. In essence, Gore was trying to commandeer a launch of the Shuttle for a campaign event in the 2000 election.

If you actually READ the report, you'll see what a boondoggle this thing was from the beginning. Check out Table 4, in particular.

In any event, Triana AS BUILT was designed to fly on Shuttle, in part to maximize the PR value to Gore from the mission. (Ah, the days of the "All Woman Crew" and Triana...magical!)

NASA has far, far, FAR better things to use $150 million on than Gore's vanity satellite.

There are two distinct issues about this satellite:
-to fly it as a political campaigning argument by Gore is questionable.
-to refuse to fly it by Bush administration to degegate climate change is criminal.
It is also clear that the first issue is used as an argument to support the Bush's views, but at a cost which is not acceptable.
We should not speak of politics in this science forum, but when bad politics comes muddling into science....

A short study should be made to see if it can be launched and operated under a small budget from, say, a Falcon I or as a secondary payload on a larger vehicle.

If it can be launched and operated for say, $25m - then I think it would make sense to fly it and use it. If it would be mroe than that, then probably not.

Doug

An interesting bit of trivia I just learned from the FPSPACE list: Triana was scheduled to fly on STS-107, which has its sad third "anniversary" today.

See here:

http://www.sts107.info/putting%20the%20mis...er/together.htm

What I think is that, even before sad or stupid political pressures, a mission should be completed, or not begun at all. A mission which is built but don't fly, a mission which flies but is stopped while still usefull (like Magellan Venus mapping, Pioneer effect data which was about to be discarded, SETI funding abandonned...) are all waste.

So, once a mission is started, it should be continued until its end (unless of course there are unforeseen problems, like the Hermes shuttle, which already very high cost doubled in some months, leading to a sad but necessary stop).

So all must be discussed, budget and eventual politic stake, before starting real expenses. And after, any project must be guaranted to be fulfilled until its end (last useable data).

But - if you have the promise that a mission will always be completed once started - you'd have people proposing at way under the actual expected budget, getting started and then saying "ahh - we need another $400m, hand it over as we've GOT to complete it"

You have to hang the threat of 'the chop' over missions realistically to get them to propose at a sensible budget, and stick to it. Make a promise that they'll fly no matter what and you'll soon be looking down the back of the sofa for cash

Doug

This project might have a future after all. Nasawatch has an article up about the Air Force/Homeland Security/NOAA interested in having it launched for space weather observation from L1 (found in a budget item in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010)

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2009/07/...at_is_back.html

That would be great! As an image junkie, I was really bummed about that mission's fate.

Well, there's always this in the meantime.

I apologize for resurrecting this topic: Triana Sat Eyed For Competitive Test Launch
it looks like the "Goresat" may fly after all...

Just found this while looking for spacecraft already built and just collecting dust (from the future exploration thread):
http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20121205
Looks like Triana is finally on track to actually get a ride up! No firm date though, or what modifications it may have. It's already been renamed, so the possibility exists.

It is not clear if a real time full color feed of earth will still be made available on the web. If it is i think it might be a PR bonanza for NASA and planetary science in general.

Yes, the technology has gotten a lot smaller and more efficient that it was ten years ago. Too bad we still know so little about the current payload.

Here's an update from late last year at the link below. This is similar to the Triana concept, specifically the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) from what I hear. It also has a radiometer on it for accurate visible and IR radiation budget measurements (NISTAR). So these Earthward looking instruments will supplement the ones looking at space weather.

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/dscovr...h/#.U1FsW2RdW9c

Additional information on the instruments can be found here:

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/triana.htm

Early 2015 launch (finally):

http://spaceref.com/earth/dscovr-is-finall...or-liftoff.html

Has there ever been another case like this where a finished spacecraft lay in storage for so long? Even Galileo wasn't held for over a decade...

Whole spacecraft? No. But some of the RapidScat hardware is approaching 20 years old. It was built with the rest of the SeaWinds program in the 90's. The spare Voyager optics in Stardust and Cassini are another example.

It's an "early FY2015" launch. FY2015 started today.

SpaceX has it on its launch manifest as a payload for 2014...

Currently scheduled for Jan 19th.
http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

DSCOVR has arrived at the Cape for testing and fueling.

Launch now scheduled for Jan. 23rd.

DSCOVR launch has been rescheduled to Feb. 8, 2015 at 23:10 GMT (6:10 pm EST). Following the launch, SpaceX will make their second attempt to land the Falcon 9 first stage on their Automated Spaceport Drone Ship, which has been named "Just Read the Instructions" by Elon. The previous attempt reportedly failed due to a shortage of hydraulic fluid, so the DSCOVR flight will carry an increased hydraulic fluid reserve so "at least it [should] explode for a different reason." I've seen speculation that they are using pressurized RP1 for hydraulic fluid, though I don't think this has been confirmed anywhere.

Recording of today's briefing.
Question at 27:00 about the Earth images and release. They will be publicly available, though with a 1 day delay.

EDIT: launch scrubbed; they'll try again tomorrow.

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) now is scheduled to launch at 6:03 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 11 (after a scrub on Feb 10th due to upper level winds).

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/february/na...0/#.VNpJWbDF87g

Halfway down this page is more information on the EPIC, the Earth pointing camera, along with NISTAR, the radiometer.

https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal...ssions/d/dscovr

And it's up. Weather prevented a barge landing for the 1st stage though.
Next up is the escape burn and cruise to L1.

P.S. Two pages over nine years: what a speedy thread!

Seems like a healthy spacecraft - showed up on DSN Now pretty quick!

At CanberraDSN, DSS45(left) and DSS34 (right) at the start of tracking DSCOVR.
DSS35 (far right) is tracking Voyager 2.

Click to view attachment

http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/02/11/spac...eep-space-orbit


Second image from the bottom... shades of Chang'e 2's view after the translunar injection.
That's Australia for sure; did you wave, Astro0?

Wow, that's an awesome image.

Click to view attachment

Cloud cover in Canberra but our dishes had a clear view

And what a beautifull launch. In the launch video, just after staging, you could see thrusters firing on the first stage to begin orienting it for landing. Luv those evening and morning launches.

Looks like a high altitude already in the impressive image two posts up, more than the 200km "parking orbit".

Yes, it is already a favorite. For the first time a Falcon second stage looks back at Earth as it departs for heliocentric orbit. I doubt it will be the last time.

Has there been any further news from this one?

Still going to L1, I assumed. Last update was in February:

http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR/

Early June arrival.

Should have got there today, but no news so far.

It's got there:
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news_archives/D...R_L1_orbit.html

This article has more info about the Earth-imaging:
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/06/08/dscov...es-finish-line/



Still no link to where they will appear; presumably there will be an announcement once they start coming down?

NOAA hosts "daily Earth images" from its satellites on this site:

http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/imagery_data.html

For DSCOVR there's still a standby diagram instead.

Test image released:
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-cap...pic-earth-image
Worth the wait, I'd say! It even catches the forest fire haze blanketing my home province at the time...

Nooooo That's what makes images look realistic and not like yet more CGI...

Yes there is good information on aerosols and the like by seeing the true color of the Earth. I wonder if they could make both original and processed imagery available? There might be separate data or products for example that show the original radiances and processed images showing Earth's surface albedo (with atmosphere removed). I might be able to check with the folks at NOAA/NESDIS, as I have a research interest for this in my image simulations.

http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/allsky/outerspace.html

Would it go through the PDS eventually, or does NOAA use a different method for data release? It's starting to get traction on social media...

"EPIC makes images of the sunlit face of the Earth in 10 narrowband spectral channels. As part of EPIC data processing, a full disk true color Earth image will be produced about every two hours. This information will be publicly available through NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, approximately 24 hours after the images are acquired."

http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR/

Adam Szabo confirmed to me today that they plan to release both original and processed images. Although, to be clear, they're all processed at some level. Not sure about PDS (or PDS-like) release schedule.

Thanks Emily for the update and blog post. It's possible the raw data could be archived in NOAA's CLASS system if it is handled like some of the polar orbiter weather satellite data (e.g. NPP SUOMI).

Nice that we (and the rest of Earth's inhabitants) will then be able to see the realistic color views of Earth, complete with the air we breathe. I suppose we can also experiment with tweaks to the methods of making RGB images. The simulated imagery I linked to in post #44 has some similarities in that the 3 narrowband radiances can be convolved with the solar spectrum, then processed by determining tri-color stimulus values and using an RGB transformation matrix to produce the RGB image.

I like seeing the real (well... closer to "real") colors.

The Caribbean is incredible... the shallows there are almost emerald-colored.

I now understand raw data will be available this fall via the Science Team web server.