Under constrained budgets and rigid schedules, NASA and industry have greatly increased their utilization of small satellites to conduct low-cost planetary investigations. Recent failed small planetary science spacecraft such as Mars Polar Lander (MPL) and Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO), and impaired missions such as Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) have fueled the ongoing debate on whether NASA’s “Faste...

gravity recovery and climate experiment (grace) satellite gravimetry mission launched in march 2002 based on its twin gravimetric satellites makes application of both high-low (hl) and law-low (ll) gravimetric techniques possible. the ll is based on satellite-to-satellite tracking (sst) via the one way two frequencies k-band-ranging between the two grace satellites. as a result of combination o...

OLFAR, Orbiting Low Frequency Antennas for Radio Astronomy, will be a space mission to observe the universe frequencies below 30 MHz, as it was never done before with an orbiting telescope. Because of the ionospheric scintillations below 30 MHz and the opaqueness of the ionosphere below 15 MHz, a space mission is the only opportunity for this as yet unexplored frequency range in radio astronomy...

Space technology has made substantial contribution in all the three phases such as preparedness, prevention and relief phases of drought and flood disaster management. The Earth Observation satellites which include both geostationary and polar orbiting satellites provide comprehensive, synoptic and multi temporal coverage of large areas in real time and at frequent intervals and ‘thus’ have bec...

It seems very likely that missions with nano-satellites in professional scientific or commercial applications will not be single-satellite missions. Well structured formations or less structured swarms of nano-satellites will be able to perform tasks that cannot be done in the “traditional” way. The Dutch space-born radio telescope project OLFAR, the Orbiting Low Frequency Array, is a good exam...

NOAA’s geostationary satellites play a key role in observing the spatial and temporal variations in surface and atmospheric features over much of North America and surrounding ocean regions. The nearly continuous viewing of the GOES-East and West satellites allows for the rapid temporal sampling of changes in land surface temperature, atmospheric stability, and clouds which are important for mo...

[1] Observations of high-latitude plasma structure and scintillation are presented from the January 2001 scintillation campaign timeframe. Comparisons are made using the all-sky imager and two beacon-satellite ground receivers located at Sondrestrom, Greenland. The Coherent Ionospheric Doppler Receiver (CIDR) observes 150and 400-MHz signals transmitted from low-Earth-orbiting satellites. The 25...