Editor's Corner

--Michael King
EOS Senior Project Scientist

NASA has found performance problems with the ground system software required to control, monitor and schedule science activities on the Earth Observing System (EOS) series of spacecraft. These problems will cause a serious delay in the launch date of the EOS AM-1 spacecraft originally planned for late June 1998.

The Ground Control Software, called the "Flight Operations Segment" (FOS) software, is part of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), the ground system responsible for spacecraft control, and data acquisition, processing and distribution for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, including the EOS missions.

The problem is with the control center FOS software that supports the command and control of the spacecraft and instruments, monitoring of spacecraft and instrument health and safety, planning and scheduling of instrument operations, and analysis of spacecraft trends and anomalies. As such, this is a critical piece of software that must be reliable, with the flight operations team sufficiently trained and confident in the software before the AM-1 spacecraft can be safely launched.

The Earth Science Enterprise is beginning a methodical planning exercise to ensure the logical progression of activities and missions to accomplish the science and applications objectives of EOS beyond the first series of missions. This is consistent with the oft-stated goals of EOS to:

  1. develop an integrated, comprehensive observing system that combines spectral, temporal, and spatial measurements to maximize the scientific return;

  2. develop a long-term measurement strategy that resolves seasonal and interannual variability to improve the scientific understanding and provide a firm starting point for assessing decadal and longer changes (e.g., 15+ year data sets for global change research); assure that these observations are well calibrated and characterized, and that an end-to-end assessment of data product quality is performed, and

  3. make these data accessible to the broader user community at the cost of filling the user request.

As a part of this effort, NASA has extended the community an opportunity to participate in the development of the Earth science strategy for the next decade, and has posted a Request for Information (RFI), entitled "Concepts for Science and Applications Missions in the Post-2002 Era" on http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/ese/nra/index.html. See page 5 for further details, or visit this Web site.

A major milestone has been reached in NASA's development of "faster, better, cheaper" space missions with the delivery of the SeaWinds instrument to Ball Aerospace in Boulder, CO, for integration into the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite. The SeaWinds instrument is NASA's next generation sensor for measuring wind speed and direction over the world's oceans. QuikSCAT is a mission designed to complete turnaround from conception to orbit in a very short period of time. The QuikSCAT mission will restart the ocean-wind data stream that was lost when the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) with a NASA Scatterometer onboard ceased functioning on June 30, 1997. Before the loss of ADEOS, NASA was able to obtain valuable data about summer and winter monsoon seasons and the onset of the El Niño event. QuikSCAT is scheduled for launch in November 1998 onboard a Titan II launch vehicle and, if successful, will be the first EOS spacecraft in orbit.

Mr. Christopher Scolese, EOS AM Project Manager, has been selected to be the Associate Director of Flight Projects for EOS, a new position at Goddard aimed at strengthening the overall management of Earth Science projects at the Center. Mr. Rick Obenschain, Director of the Earth Science Data and Information Systems Project, will also serve as Deputy Associate Director of Flight Projects for EOS Operations, with specific responsibility for ESDIS. An additional position of Deputy Associate Director of Flight Projects for EOS Development has also been established, with specific responsibility for AM, PM, Chemistry, Landsat, and IceSat. This position will be handled initially by Chris Scolese in an acting capacity. Mr. Kevin Grady, Deputy EOS AM Project Manager, will serve as acting AM Project Manager. I would like to congratulate Chris, Rick, and Kevin on their new appointments, and welcome the opportunity to continue to work with them in NASA's Earth Science Program.

An Investigators Working Group (IWG) meeting is now scheduled for October 19-21 at the New England Center in Durham, New Hampshire. As in the past couple of years, the primary focus of this meeting is to (i) learn of recent progress and exciting accomplishments obtained thus far by various EOS investigations, (ii) assess progress and expectations for EOSDIS in the next couple of years, and (iii) review the status and plans for data processing and validation of EOS instruments to be launched in the next couple of years.