Less than three weeks after launch, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission has successfully completed its first mission phase and demonstrated the performance of the precise microwave ranging system that enables its unique measurements of how mass migrates around our planet.
The twin spacecraft launched May 22 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. NASA and German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) engineers and mission controllers at the German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen then spent the first few days completing the mission's launch and early operations phase and moving into an 85-day in-orbit checkout period. Science operations will begin when that period has been successfully completed.
During the initial phase, the twin GRACE-FO satellites were maneuvered into their operational orbit formation approximately 137 miles (220 kilometers) apart. Spacecraft systems were powered on, checked out and found to be performing as expected. Engineers also activated both primary instruments: the accelerometers, which measure forces on the satellites other than gravity, such as atmospheric drag or solar radiation pressure; and the microwave ranging instruments, which precisely measure the distance changes between the two satellites as they orbit Earth. Variations in Earth's gravity field caused by changes in the distribution of Earth's mass on and beneath the planet's surface—such as groundwater withdrawal and ice melt—cause the distance between the two satellites to vary ever so slightly.
[...] GRACE-FO data will provide unique insights into Earth's changing climate, including large-scale changes in our planet's ice sheets and glaciers; Earth system processes that define our environment, such as droughts and earthquakes; and even the impacts of some human activities, such as changes in the levels of aquifers resulting from pumping underground water for use in agriculture. GRACE-FO observations promise to provide far-reaching benefits to society.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:12AM (2 children)
A precise gravity map is just what the Democratic People's Republic of Korea requires to drop a hydrogen bomb into the wastebasket next to the Commander In Chief's desk.
the 1958 International Geophysical Year's mission was to measure the precise shape of the Earth. Sputnik made orbit not long after that. I am completely convinced the Year was a concerted effort by NATO and Warsaw Pact citizen scientists to prevent nuclear war by ensuring that our Destruction would be Mutually Assured.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Wednesday June 13 2018, @12:45PM (1 child)
Now, try doing that with a missile that has an accuracy of thousands of miles for a target which will be on the move (and shortly in the air), the moment the US detects the launch(es).
But maybe that wastebasket had it coming.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Wednesday June 13 2018, @06:30PM
In a game of thermonuclear war, an individual wastebasket doesn't quite matter, because there's always another wastebasket available.
City centers and datacenters don't move.