WASHINGTON — A joint Earth science mission between NASA and its Indian counterpart is now scheduled to launch as quickly as subsequent March after being delayed to restore its major radar antenna.
In a presentation on the annual assembly of the American Geophysical Union right here Dec. 11, Gerald Bawden, program scientist for the NASA-ISRO Artificial Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission at NASA Headquarters, stated the spacecraft is now scheduled to launch from India in a window that opens in late March.
NISAR was beforehand scheduled to launch within the spring of this yr, however NASA introduced in March that it could delay the launch to make repairs to the spacecraft’s 12-meter deployable reflector utilized by its major radar instrument. Engineers concluded that the reflector would get hotter than anticipated when in orbit instantly after launch whereas nonetheless stowed. These repairs required transport the antenna from India to California.
NASA accomplished these repairs by October, transport the antenna again to India on a C-130 plane. The company stated then that NISAR would launch in early 2025 however was no more particular. NASA had stated in July that the launch couldn’t happen between October 2024 and February 2025 as a result of the launch would place the spacecraft into an orbit with “intervals of alternating daylight and shadows” that may create temperature fluctuations affecting the reflector’s deployment.
Bawden stated the difficulty with the antenna was found throughout checks of the spacecraft in a thermal vacuum chamber. “A few of the temperatures have been increased than we anticipated them to be,” he stated, “so what we determined to do is take away the reflector from NISAR and convey it again to the USA.”
The repair to the reflector, he stated, concerned inserting strips of reflective tape on rods within the reflector that have been black. “We’re set now with NISAR,” he stated. “The {hardware} is totally checked out.”
The spacecraft is in storage for 2 causes. One is to attend till the eclipse interval ends Feb. 8. The second is that the launch pad at India’s Satish Dhawan Area Centre that will likely be used for the Geosynchronous Satellite tv for pc Launch Car (GSLV) launching NISAR should first help one other GSLV launch of a navigation satellite tv for pc, NVS-02.
The NVS-02 launch is at the moment scheduled for mid-January. “As soon as it launches, it’s going to take six to eight weeks to refurbish the launch pad” earlier than NISAR can launch, he stated. The mission is at the moment focusing on a launch no sooner than late March.
NISAR is a joint mission by NASA and the Indian house company ISRO that may fly L- and S-band radars for international mapping of land and ice. The radars on NISAR will likely be able to superior radar imaging to help a variety of Earth science wants, from measuring the move charges of glaciers to volcanic exercise. Bawden stated science operations ought to start about three months after launch.
NISAR additionally represents one of many greatest collaborations between NASA and ISRO so far, with NASA spending greater than $1 billion in formulation and improvement of the mission. NASA is offering an L-band radar and engineering payload, whereas ISRO is offering the S-band payload, spacecraft bus and GSLV launch automobile.
