Earth Science Instrument Refurbishment, Testing and Recalibration for the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR)
Abstract
The Deep Space Climate Observer (DSCOVR) mission began in 1998 as Triana, the first Earth observing spacecraft mission to be stationed at the Earth-Sun first Lagrange point. From L1, Triana would image the entire sunlit side of the earth giving unprecedented temporal and spatial coverage of phenomena in Earth's atmosphere and on its surface. Following the environmental testing of the observatory, the mission was placed into stable suspension in November of 2001 while waiting to be manifested on a launch vehicle. Recently, NOAA has become interested in using the now named DSCOVR observatory to replace the aging Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft to provide an early warning for potentially damaging space weather events which can disrupt communications, degrade navigation signals and damage spacecraft and power grids. In addition to the Plasma-Magnetometer (PLASMAG) instrument suite, DSCOVR carried two Earth science instruments. The Earth Poly-Chromatic imaging Camera (EPIC) and the NIST advanced Radiometer (NISTAR). In early 2009, NASA was given direction to remove these two instruments from the DSCOVR spacecraft bus and perform a recalibration of the NISTAR and to perform a refurbishment of the EPIC instrument. This paper will describe these recent efforts to prepare EPIC and NISTAR for launch on the DSCOVR mission.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.A43G..03S
- Keywords:
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- 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE