Mercury ahead!

 

ESA & JAXA - Bepicolombo Mission patch.

Sep. 28, 2021

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will make the first of six flybys of its destination planet on 1 October before entering orbit in 2025.

Hot on the heels of its last Venus flyby in August, the spacecraft’s next exciting encounter is with Mercury at 23:34 UTC on 1 October (01:34 CEST 2 October). It will swoop by the planet at an altitude of about 200 km, capturing imagery and science data that will give scientists a tantalising first taste of what’s to come in the main mission.

BepiColombo first Mercury flyby

The mission comprises two science orbiters which will be delivered into complementary orbits around the planet by the Mercury Transfer Module in 2025. The ESA-led Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the JAXA-led Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, Mio, will study all aspects of this mysterious inner planet from its core to surface processes, magnetic field and exosphere, to better understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star.

BepiColombo will make use of nine planetary flybys in total: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, together with the spacecraft’s solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury orbit.

On track for Mercury slingshot

Gravitational flybys require extremely precise deep-space navigation work, ensuring that the spacecraft is on the correct approach trajectory.

One week after BepiColombo’s last flyby on 10 August, a correction manoeuvre was performed to nudge the craft a little for this first flyby of Mercury, targeting an altitude of 200 km. At present, the craft is predicted to pass the innermost planet at 198 km, and small adjustments can easily be made with solar electric propulsion manoeuvres after the swing-by. As BepiColombo is more than 100 million km away from Earth, with light taking 350 seconds (about six minutes) to reach it, being on target to within just two kilometres is no easy feat.

BepiColombo journey timeline

“It is because of our remarkable ground stations that we know where our spacecraft is with such precision. With this information, the Flight Dynamics team at ESOC know just how much we need to manoeuvre, to be in the right place for Mercury’s gravitational assist,” explains Elsa Montagnon, Spacecraft Operations Manager for the mission.

“As is often the case, our mission’s path has been planned so meticulously that no further correction manoeuvres are expected for this upcoming flyby. BepiColombo is on track."

First glimpse of Mercury

During the flybys it is not possible to take high-resolution imagery with the main science camera because it is shielded by the transfer module while the spacecraft is in cruise configuration. However, two of BepiColombo’s three monitoring cameras (MCAMs) will be taking photos from about five minutes after the time of close  approach and up to four hours later. Because BepiColombo is arriving on the planet’s nightside, conditions are not ideal to take images directly at the closest approach, thus the closest image will be captured from a distance of about 1000 km.

BepiColombo’s first Mercury flyby – key moments

The first image to be downlinked will be from about 30 minutes after closest approach, and is expected to be available for public release at around 08:00 CEST on Saturday morning. The close approach and subsequent images will be downlinked one by one during Saturday morning.

The cameras provide black-and-white snapshots in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, and are positioned on the Mercury Transfer Module such that they also capture the spacecraft’s solar arrays and antennas. As the spacecraft changes its orientation during the flyby, Mercury will be seen passing behind the spacecraft structural elements.

In general, MCAM-2 will point towards the northern hemisphere of Mercury, while MCAM-3 will point towards the southern hemisphere. During the half hour following the close approach, imaging will alternate between the two cameras. Later imaging will be performed by MCAM-3.

BepiColombo first Mercury flyby

For the closest images it should be possible to identify large impact craters on the planet’s surface. Mercury has a heavily cratered surface much like the appearance of Earth’s Moon, plotting its 4.6 billion year history. Mapping the surface of Mercury and analysing its composition will help scientists understand more about its formation and evolution.

Even though BepiColombo is in ‘stacked’ cruise configuration for the flybys, it will be possible to operate some of the science instruments on both planetary orbiters, allowing a first taste of the planet’s magnetic, plasma and particle environment.

“We’re really looking forward to seeing the first results from measurements taken so close to Mercury’s surface,” says Johannes Benkhoff, ESA’s BepiColombo project scientist. “When I started working as project scientist on BepiColombo in January 2008, NASA’s Messenger mission had its first flyby at Mercury. Now it’s our turn. It’s a fantastic feeling!”

Celebrating BepiColombo’s namesake

The upcoming first Mercury flyby falls on the 101st anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe 'Bepi' Colombo (2 October 1920–20 February 1984), an Italian scientist and engineer for whom the BepiColombo mission is named. Colombo is known for explaining Mercury's peculiar characteristic of rotating about its own axis three times in every two orbits of the Sun. He also realised that by careful choice of a spacecraft’s flyby point as it passed a planet, the planet’s gravity could help the spacecraft make further flybys. His interplanetary calculations enabled NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft to achieve three flybys of Mercury instead of one by using a flyby of Venus to change the spacecraft’s flight path – the first of many spacecraft to use such a gravity assist manoeuvre.

From Messenger to BepiColombo

Following Mariner 10’s mission in 1974-75, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft flew by Mercury three times in 2008-09 and orbited the planet for four years (2011-2015). The BepiColombo mission will build on the successes of its predecessors to provide the best understanding of the Solar System’s innermost planet to date.

Follow the flyby

Follow @Esaoperations and @bepicolombo together with @ESA_Bepi, @ESA_MTM and @JAXA_MMO for updates.

https://twitter.com/esaoperations

https://twitter.com/bepicolombo

https://twitter.com/ESA_Bepi

https://twitter.com/ESA_MTM

https://twitter.com/JAXA_MMO

The first image is expected to be released early in the morning of Saturday 2 October (provisionally 08:00 CEST); subsequent images may be released later in the day on Saturday and/or Monday 4 October. Additional science commentary may also be available in the week following the flyby. Timings subject to change depending on actual spacecraft events and image availability.

Related link:

BepiColombo: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo

Images, Animation, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/ATG medialab.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Soyuz Crew Ship Docks to New Science Module Port

 

ISS - Expedition 65 Mission patch.

September 28, 2021

The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that first launched and arrived to the International Space Station April 9 has now successfully relocated with its crew aboard from the station’s Earth-facing Rassvet module to the “Nauka” Multipurpose Laboratory Module. The spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, commander of the Soyuz, and Pyotr Dubrov along with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, docked at 9:04 a.m. EDT.

It is the first time a spacecraft has attached to the new Nauka module, which arrived at the station in July, and is the 20th Soyuz port relocation in station history and the first since March 2021.

Image above: The International Space Station configuration as of Sept. 28, 2021, with the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship docked to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Image Credit: NASA.

The relocation frees the Rassvet port for the arrival October 5 of another Soyuz spacecraft, designated Soyuz MS-19, which will carry Soyuz commander and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and spaceflight participants Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild.

Vande Hei and Dubrov are scheduled to remain aboard the station until March 2022. At the time of his return, Vande Hei will have set the record for the longest single spaceflight for an American. Novitskiy, Shipenko, and Peresild are scheduled to return to Earth in October aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft.

Soyuz MS-18 relocation

For more than 20 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. As a global endeavor, 244 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.

Related links:

Expedition 65: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition65/index.html

Soyuz MS-18: https://go.nasa.gov/3d5fKPb

Rassvet module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/rassvet

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/NASA TV/SciNews.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Crew Gets Ready for Russian, U.S. Spaceship Activities This Week

 

ISS - Expedition 65 Mission patch.

September 27, 2021

A Soyuz crew ship with three Expedition 65 crew members aboard will move to a new docking port on Tuesday. Two days after that a U.S. cargo craft will depart the International Space Station and return to Earth packed with science experiments and station hardware for retrieval.

NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov will flank Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy inside the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship when it switches ports on Tuesday. The trio will undock from the Rassvet module at 8:21 a.m. EDT. Then they will maneuver temporarily toward the U.S. segment for a quick photo session of the orbiting lab’s configuration. Shortly afterward, Novitskiy will manually guide the Soyuz spaceship back toward the Russian segment and dock to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module at 9 a.m.

Image above: The Soyuz MS-18 crew ship and the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module are pictured above Hurricane Henri in the Atlantic Ocean on Aug. 21, 2021. Image Credit: NASA.

This opens up Rassvet’s port for next month’s arrival of the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship carrying veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and two Russian spaceflight participants to the station. NASA TV will begin its live Tuesday coverage of the relocation at 8 a.m. on the NASA app and the agency’s website.

While the station trio ramps up for the docking port change, two NASA astronauts are loading the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship today with science gear and other cargo. Flight Engineer Megan McArthur started her day transferring cargo inside the Dragon vehicle. NASA Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough configured science freezers inside Dragon that will contain research samples for analysis back on Earth.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA

Cargo Dragon leaves the Harmony module’s forward international docking adapter on Thursday at 9:05 a.m. EDT. NASA TV will broadcast Dragon’s undocking and departure starting at 8:45 a.m. but will not be on air when the returning spacecraft splashes down off the coast of Florida about 14 hours later.

Science rolled on today, as Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and  ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet partnered up during the afternoon for space biology work in the Kibo laboratory module. The duo later prepared research samples for return to Earth inside Dragon’s science freezers.

Related links:

Expedition 65: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition65/index.html

Soyuz MS-18: https://go.nasa.gov/3d5fKPb

Rassvet module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/rassvet

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/live

Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony

Kibo laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hubble Shows Winds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Are Speeding Up

 

NASA / ESA - Hubble Space Telescope (HST) patch.

27 September 2021

In Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a storm that has been roiling for centuries, its “outer lane” is moving faster than its “inner lane” — and continues to pick up speed. By analysing long-term data from this high-speed ring, researchers have found that the wind speed has increased by up to 8 percent between 2009 and 2020. These findings could only be made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has amassed more than 10 years of regular observations, acting like a storm watcher for the planets in our Solar System.

Winds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Researchers analysing Hubble's regular "storm reports" have found that the average wind speed just within the boundaries of the storm, known as the high-speed ring, has increased by up to 8 percent between 2009 and 2020. In contrast, the winds near the red spot’s innermost region are moving significantly more slowly.

The massive storm's coloured clouds spin counterclockwise at speeds that exceed 640 kilometres per hour — and the vortex is bigger than Earth itself. The Red Spot is legendary in part because humans have observed it for more than 150 years.

“When I initially saw the results, I asked 'Does this make sense?' No one has ever seen this before," said Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the analysis. "But this is something only Hubble can do. Hubble's longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible."

Hubble's View of Jupiter and Europa in August 2020

Earth-orbiting satellites and aeroplanes track major storms on Earth closely in real time. "Since we don't have a storm chaser plane at Jupiter, we can't continuously measure the winds on site," explained Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who contributed to the research. "Hubble is the only telescope that has the kind of temporal coverage and spatial resolution that can capture Jupiter’s winds in this much detail."

The change in wind speed they have measured with Hubble amounts to less than 2.5 kilometres per hour per Earth year. "We're talking about such a small change that if we didn’t have eleven years of Hubble data, we wouldn't know it had happened," said Simon. "With Hubble we have the precision we need to spot a trend." Hubble's ongoing monitoring allows researchers to revisit and analyse its data very precisely as they keep adding to it. The smallest features Hubble can reveal in the storm are a mere 170 kilometres across.

Moving Winds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

To better analyse Hubble's bounty of data, Wong took a new approach to his data analysis. He used software to track tens to hundreds of thousands of wind vectors (directions and speeds) each time Jupiter was observed by Hubble.

What does the increase in speed mean? "That's hard to diagnose, since Hubble can't see the bottom of the storm very well. Anything below the cloud tops is invisible in the data," explained Wong. "But it's an interesting piece of the puzzle that can help us understand what's fueling the Great Red Spot and how it's maintaining its energy." There's still a lot of work to do to fully understand it.

Astronomers have pursued ongoing studies of the "king" of Solar System storms since the 1870s. The Great Red Spot is an upwelling of material from Jupiter's interior. If seen from the side, the storm would have a tiered, wedding-cake structure with high clouds at the centre cascading down to its outer layers. Astronomers have noted that it is shrinking in size and becoming more circular than oval in observations spanning more than a century. The current diameter is 16 000 kilometres across, meaning that Earth could still fit inside it.

Global Model of Jupiter

In addition to observing this legendary, long-lived storm, researchers have observed storms on other planets, including Neptune, where they tend to travel across the planet’s surface and disappear after only a few years. Research like this helps scientists not only learn about the individual planets, but also draw conclusions about the underlying physics that drives and maintains planets' storms.

The majority of the data to support this research came from Hubble's Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, which provides annual Hubble global views of the outer planets that allow astronomers to look for changes in the planets' storms, winds, and clouds.

More information:

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

The team of astronomers in this study consists of M. H. Wong, P. S. Marcus, A. A. Simon, I. de Pater, J. W. Tollefson, and X. Asay-Davis.

These results have been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Links:

Images of Hubble: https://esahubble.org/images/archive/category/spacecraft/

Hubble’s Images of Jupiter: https://esahubble.org/images/archive/category/solarsystem/?search=Jupiter

Hubblesite release: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2021/news-2021-055

Hubblesite: https://esahubble.org/

Science paper: https://esahubble.org/static/science_papers/heic2110/heic2110.pdf

Images Credits: NASA, ESA, M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley)/NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team/Videos Credits: NASA, ESA, M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley)/NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), M. Kornmesser/Text Credits: ESA/Hubble/Bethany Downer/University of California, Berkeley/Michael H. Wong.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

CASIC - Kuaizhou-1A launches Jilin-1 Gaofen 02D

 

CASIC - China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation logo.

Sep. 27, 2021

Kuaizhou-1A carrying Jilin-1 Gaofen 02D liftoff

A Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) launch vehicle launched the Jilin-1 Gaofen 02D satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu Province, northwest China, on 27 September 2021, at 06:19 UTC (14:19 local time).

Kuaizhou-1A launches Jilin-1 Gaofen 02D

Jilin-1 Gaofen 02D (吉林一号高分02D) is a new optical remote sensing satellite, developed by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., part of a network that provides remote sensing data and services for agriculture, forestry, resources and environment.

Jilin-1 Gaofen 02D satellite

KZ-1A (快舟一号) is developed by ExPace Technology Corporation, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC): https://www.cccme.org.cn/shop/tools043/index.aspx

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: CASIC/China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/SciNews/Gunter's Space Page/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Launches New Mission to Monitor Earth’s Landscapes

 

NASA - LandSat 9 Mission logo.

September 27, 2021

Landsat 9, a NASA satellite built to monitor the Earth’s land surface, successfully launched at 2:12 p.m. EDT Monday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Image above: The Landsat 9 satellite lifts off Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Landsat 9 mission will measure the changing landscapes of our home planet. Image Credit: NASA TV.

A joint mission with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Landsat 9 lifted off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 3E. Norway’s Svalbard satellite-monitoring ground station acquired signals from the spacecraft about 83 minutes after launch. Landsat 9 is performing as expected as it travels to its final orbital altitude of 438 miles (705 kilometers).

Image above: The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the Landsat 9 satellite onboard launches, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Landsat 9 satellite is a joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey mission that will continue the legacy of monitoring Earth’s land and coastal regions. Image Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

“NASA uses the unique assets of our own unprecedented fleet, as well as the instruments of other nations, to study our own planet and its climate systems,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “With a 50-year data bank to build on, Landsat 9 will take this historic and invaluable global program to the next level. We look forward to working with our partners at the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of the Interior again on Landsat Next, because we never stop advancing our work to understand our planet.”

Atlas V launches Landsat 9

“Today’s successful launch is a major milestone in the nearly 50-year joint partnership between USGS and NASA who, for decades, have partnered to collect valuable scientific information and use that data to shape policy with the utmost scientific integrity,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “As the impacts of the climate crisis intensify in the United States and across the globe, Landsat 9 will provide data and imagery to help make science-based decisions on key issues including water use, wildfire impacts, coral reef degradation, glacier and ice-shelf retreat, and tropical deforestation.”

The first Landsat satellite launched in 1972. Since then, NASA has always kept a Landsat in orbit to collect images of the physical material covering our planet’s surface and changes to land usage. Those images allow researchers to monitor phenomena including agricultural productivity, forest extent and health, water quality, coral reef habitat health, and glacier dynamics.  

“The Landsat mission is like no other,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “For nearly 50 years, Landsat satellites observed our home planet, providing an unparalleled record of how its surface has changed over timescales from days to decades. Through this partnership with USGS, we’ve been able to provide continuous and timely data for users ranging from farmers to resource managers and scientists. This data can help us understand, predict, and plan for the future in a changing climate.”

Landsat 9 joins its sister satellite, Landsat 8, in orbit. Working in tandem, the two satellites will collect images spanning the entire planet every eight days.

“Landsat 9 will be our new eyes in the sky when it comes to observing our changing planet,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA. “Working in tandem with the other Landsat satellites, as well as our European Space Agency partners who operate the Sentintel-2 satellites, we are getting a more comprehensive look at Earth than ever before. With these satellites working together in orbit, we’ll have observations of any given place on our planet every two days. This is incredibly important for tracking things like crop growth and helping decision makers monitor the overall health of Earth and its natural resources.”

Landsat 9 spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA

The instruments aboard Landsat 9 – the Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2) – measure 11 wavelengths of light reflected or radiated off Earth’s surface, in the visible spectrum as well as other wavelengths beyond what our eyes can detect. As the satellite orbits, these instruments will capture scenes across a swath of 115 miles (185 kilometers). Each pixel in these images represents an area about 98 feet (30 meters) across, about the size of a baseball infield. At that high a resolution, resource managers will be able to identify most crop fields in the United States.

“Launches are always exciting, and today was no exception,” said Jeff Masek, NASA Landsat 9 project scientist. “But the best part for me, as a scientist, will be when the satellite starts delivering the data that people are waiting for, adding to Landsat’s legendary reputation in the data user community.”

The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, processes and stores data from the instruments, continuously adding that information to the five decades of data from all of the Landsat satellites.

All Landsat images and the embedded data are free and publicly available, a policy that has resulted in more than 100 million downloads since its inception in 2008.

9 Things About Landsat 9

NASA manages the Landsat 9 mission. Teams from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, also built and tested the TIRS-2 instrument. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida managed the launch of the mission. EROS will operate the mission and manage the ground system, including maintaining the Landsat archive. Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, built and tested the OLI-2 instrument. United Launch Alliance is the rocket provider for Landsat 9’s launch. Northrop Grumman in Gilbert, Arizona, built the Landsat 9 spacecraft, integrated it with instruments, and tested it.

To learn more about Landsat 9, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/landsat9

Images (mentioned), Videos, Text, Credits: NASA/Tylar Greene/KSC/Mary MacLaughlin/GSFC/Mary MacLaughlin/NASA TV/SciNews.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Going hyperspectral for CHIME

 

CHIME logo.

Sep. 27, 2021

With Covid restrictions a little more relaxed, scientists from Europe and the USA were finally able to team up for a long-awaited field experiment to ensure that a new Copernicus satellite called CHIME will deliver the best possible data products as soon as it is operational in orbit. This new mission is being developed to support EU policies on the management of natural resources, ultimately helping to address the global issue of food security.

Hyperspectral image cube showing Mount Vesuvius, Italy

The Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment, or CHIME for short, is one of six new missions that the EU and ESA are developing to expand the current suite of Copernicus Sentinels. Data from the Sentinels feed into a range of Copernicus services that address challenges such as urbanisation, food security, rising sea levels, diminishing polar ice, natural disasters, and climate change.

The six Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missions will add to the present capabilities of the Sentinels to further address EU policy priorities and gaps in Copernicus user needs.

Carrying a novel imaging spectrometer, the CHIME mission will provide systematic hyperspectral images to map changes in land cover and help sustainable agricultural practices. It will also be used to detect different soil properties for action on improving soil health. In addition, CHIME will be used to support forest management and assessments on biodiversity, ecosystem sustainability and environmental degradation, and to monitor lake and coastal ecosystems including water quality.

CHIME

To best prepare CHIME for its tasks in ahead, and as part of a cooperation between ESA and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), scientists joined forces recently for the Hypersense experiment campaign, which was supposed to take place in 2020 but Covid restrictions meant it had to be delayed.

The campaign, which is being managed by the University of Zurich, firstly involved bringing an aircraft and JPL’s measuring instrument from the USA to the Dübendorf airbase near Zurich in Switzerland. The Next Generation Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, AVIRIS, instrument resembles the capabilities that CHIME will have once in orbit.

Measurements taken with AVIRIS over more than 20 test sites that represent different types of ecosystems are helping scientists and engineers prepare for and ensure that CHIME will be able to take up duty delivering high-quality diagnostic and quantitative data as soon it is in orbit and operational.

Agricultural fields in Irlbach, Germany, from AVIRIS

Most of these flights coincided with measurements taken on the ground to further help evaluate the data collected by the airborne instrument.

As part of this airborne and field campaign, a cooperation was also set up with the Italian Space Agency, ASI, to observe the test sites from space with their satellite imaging spectrometer called PRISMA. In addition, the German Aerospace Center, DLR, provided hyperspectral images from its DESIS sensor, an imaging spectrometer that looks down on Earth from the International Space Station.

The resulting datasets will include contemporaneous ground, airborne and spaceborne observations for an improved diagnostic and quantitative analysis of these imaging spectrometer ‘fingerprint’ data, which result from observing the target by means of contiguous spectral bands between the blue and the shortwave infrared (400–2500 nm).

Michael Rast, ESA’s mission scientist for CHIME, said, “The datasets will help us establish and evaluate future CHIME data products including specific agriculture vegetation components such as chlorophyll and nitrogen and quantify carbon content in soils, thus supporting the improvement of agricultural practices and management.”

CHIME campaign pre-flight briefing

The cooperation with NASA, under which this campaign is being carried out, also includes harmonised preparation between CHIME and NASA’s Surface Biology Geology mission, which has similar spectrometer observation characteristics as CHIME. Both missions are slated for launch in the second half of this decade.

Robert O. Green, AVIRIS-NG Principal Investigator, said, “This was a challenging campaign from a Covid and weather perspective, yet the team persevered and collected an extraordinary group of imaging spectroscopy data sets to support both the CHIME and NASA’s Surface Biology Geology future missions for the benefit of our planet.”

“With food security a global issue, it’s vital that space agencies collaborate so that we can tap into our relative expertise and assets for the best outcomes. In this case, we have ESA, NASA, ASI and DLR all working together along with high-ranking scientists form across Europe, the USA, Israel and Australia – which is absolutely fabulous,” added Dr Rast.

Related links:

CHIME: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Copernicus_Sentinel_Expansion_missions

Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, AVIRIS: https://aviris.jpl.nasa.gov/

Copernicus: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus

Observing the Earth: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/JPL/Thales Alenia Space/University of Zurich.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch