- Email: [email protected]
2.5. Nasa signs agreement with ESA for 1983 solar polar mission
Space Agency @A) at its meetiug on 13 March 1979. The Programme Board approved the start of a Remote Sensing Preparatory Programme to be carried out by ESA. The Governments of Demnark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom have already subscribed to this new European programme, and additional Member States are expected to join in the near future. The objectives of the new programme are to undertake the study and early development of critical technological systems needed by the future European remot~s~~g satellites, expect& to be launched in the mid-eighties, mo~to~ng both land and ocean surfaces. The tasks carried out by ESA will concentrate on the definition and predevelopment of key elements of the optical and microwave sensors required for these future European satellites. Additional studies will examine in detail the interfaces between the remote sensing payload and a common satellite platform. An important feature inherent in this new ESA activity is the direct utilization of relevant developments under way within the national programmes. In this way all participating States benefit from the on-going national initiatives. Specific examples of national developments from which the European systems will be wholly or partly derived include the multi-mission platform being developed by CNES for the SPOT satellite and the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) studied in FRG for fhghts on Spacelab cozens in 1983. The duration of the preparatory programme will be two years with an overall budget of 9 MAU. The programme will be incorporated into the larger remote sensing satellite development programme which is expected to be approved by the ESA Council in 1980.
2.9. NASA SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH ESA FOR 1983 SOLAR POLAR MISSION”
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed an agreement for a joint International Solar Polar Mission (ISPM) to be launched in 1983. A Memor~dum of Unde~~di~ (MOU) was signed on 29 March 1979 in Wonton, DC., by Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA A~strator, and Mr. Roy Gibson, Director General of ESA. The two-spacecraft mission will observe the sun for the first time from the perspective above the polar regions. The primary objectives of the ISPM project are to extend scientific knowledge and understanding through exploration of the sun and its environment by studying the sun’s structure and emission as a function of latitude from the solar equator to the solar poles. The secondary mission objectives are to investigate the interplanetary medium during the initial EarthJupiter phase and the Jovian magnetosphere during the Jupiter fly-by phase. Under the agreement, NASA and the 11-member European Space Agency will each provide a spacecraft. ESA will also supply the software and personnel to (WSA News Release of 30 March 1979.
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manage and support ESA flight operations and data processing at the US facility. In addition to ESA’s participation, the Federal Republic of Germany, United Kingdom, France and Switzerland will be providing experiments for the mission. Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands and Canada also have a scientific involvement. NASA is also responsible for: one partial and five complete science experiments for the ESA spacecraft; launch operations services and launching of both spacecraft by the Space Tmnsportation System; Tracking and Data Acquisition (IDA) for earth-orbital checkout of both spacecraft and TDA from deep space; a mission control and computing facility and appropriate data records to scientific and engineering personnel. The two spacecraft will be launched simultaneously by the space shuttle and then directed on trajectory in the ecliptic plane (the plane which contains all the planets) to Jupiter by an inertial upper stage booster. They will swing around Jupiter and use the gravity of that giant planet to redirect their paths out of the ecliptic plane back towards the sun in trajectories, one northbound and one southbound, that are essentially mirror images of each other. They will pass over the north and south solar poles, swing back through the ecliptic plane, pass respectively over the other solar poles and then fly back out to the vicinity of Jupiter’s orbit. The period from launch until shortly after the second pair of polar passages is approximately five years. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., has been assigned to manage the NASA effort for NASA’s office of space science. JPL will also manage the development of the NASA spacecraft system. The NASA Space Transportation System portion of the solar polar mission will be managed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The European effort will be managed by the European Space Agency at its Establishment (ESTEC) Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
26. ESA APPOINTS NEW DIRECTOR FOR ESOCm’
The Council of the European Space Agency at a meeting in Paris on 3 April 1979, on a proposal by the Director General, appointed Dr. Reinhold Steiner as Director of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) located at Darmstadt, FRG. He succeeds Pr. Gianni Formica and will take up his duties before mid-July. Dr. Steiner (51) is of Swiss nationality and has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, a Diploma of the Imperial College, London and a PhD in solid state physics from the University of London. After some years in industry, he became Scientific and Technical Counsellor at the Swiss Embassies in Washington and Ottawa and later Counsellor WSA
News Release of 6 April 1979.
2.9. NASA SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH ESA FOR 1983 SOLAR POLAR MISSION”
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed an agreement for a joint International Solar Polar Mission (ISPM) to be launched in 1983. A Memor~dum of Unde~~di~ (MOU) was signed on 29 March 1979 in Wonton, DC., by Dr. Robert A. Frosch, NASA A~strator, and Mr. Roy Gibson, Director General of ESA. The two-spacecraft mission will observe the sun for the first time from the perspective above the polar regions. The primary objectives of the ISPM project are to extend scientific knowledge and understanding through exploration of the sun and its environment by studying the sun’s structure and emission as a function of latitude from the solar equator to the solar poles. The secondary mission objectives are to investigate the interplanetary medium during the initial EarthJupiter phase and the Jovian magnetosphere during the Jupiter fly-by phase. Under the agreement, NASA and the 11-member European Space Agency will each provide a spacecraft. ESA will also supply the software and personnel to (WSA News Release of 30 March 1979.
43
manage and support ESA flight operations and data processing at the US facility. In addition to ESA’s participation, the Federal Republic of Germany, United Kingdom, France and Switzerland will be providing experiments for the mission. Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands and Canada also have a scientific involvement. NASA is also responsible for: one partial and five complete science experiments for the ESA spacecraft; launch operations services and launching of both spacecraft by the Space Tmnsportation System; Tracking and Data Acquisition (IDA) for earth-orbital checkout of both spacecraft and TDA from deep space; a mission control and computing facility and appropriate data records to scientific and engineering personnel. The two spacecraft will be launched simultaneously by the space shuttle and then directed on trajectory in the ecliptic plane (the plane which contains all the planets) to Jupiter by an inertial upper stage booster. They will swing around Jupiter and use the gravity of that giant planet to redirect their paths out of the ecliptic plane back towards the sun in trajectories, one northbound and one southbound, that are essentially mirror images of each other. They will pass over the north and south solar poles, swing back through the ecliptic plane, pass respectively over the other solar poles and then fly back out to the vicinity of Jupiter’s orbit. The period from launch until shortly after the second pair of polar passages is approximately five years. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., has been assigned to manage the NASA effort for NASA’s office of space science. JPL will also manage the development of the NASA spacecraft system. The NASA Space Transportation System portion of the solar polar mission will be managed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The European effort will be managed by the European Space Agency at its Establishment (ESTEC) Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
26. ESA APPOINTS NEW DIRECTOR FOR ESOCm’
The Council of the European Space Agency at a meeting in Paris on 3 April 1979, on a proposal by the Director General, appointed Dr. Reinhold Steiner as Director of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) located at Darmstadt, FRG. He succeeds Pr. Gianni Formica and will take up his duties before mid-July. Dr. Steiner (51) is of Swiss nationality and has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, a Diploma of the Imperial College, London and a PhD in solid state physics from the University of London. After some years in industry, he became Scientific and Technical Counsellor at the Swiss Embassies in Washington and Ottawa and later Counsellor WSA
News Release of 6 April 1979.