NASA to Launch New Small Satellite Missions to do Real Science
-
- Visualizations by:
- Chris Meaney
-
- Videography:
- Rob Andreoli
- View full credits
NASA is about to launch six new next-generation Earth-observing small satellites — some as small as a loaf of bread. These tiny spacecraft are helping to foster creative and cost-effective approaches to studying our planet. This page contains a short overview video as well as a series of conceptual animations of small sats being launched, deployed, in orbit over the Earth collecting data, and in comparison in size to both a person and a traditional large satellite. Note: While these animations are based on real satellite models, they are intended to be generic and not perfectly descriptive of any particular small sat mission. For more on NASA’s small satellite program: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-hold-media-call-on-new-small-satellite-missions-to-study-earth.
This short overview video outlines the capabilities of small satellites.
Complete transcript available.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
-
Animators
- Chris Meaney (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
- Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
-
Videographer
- Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.) [Lead]
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Related Pages
-
-
ID: 12410 Produced Video
Small Satellites for Earth Science
Read moreNASA has embraced the revolution in small spacecraft and satellites, from CubeSats you can hold in your hand to microsatellites the size of a small washing machine. The technology helps advance scientific and human exploration, reduces the cost of new missions, and expands access to space. The briefing will discuss NASA's overall program, technology development initiatives, and new Earth-observing missions that use individual and constellations of small satellites to study climate change, hurricanes and clouds.Briefing PanelistsEllen Stofan, chief scientists at NASA Headquarters in WashingtonThomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA HeadquartersSteve Jurczyk, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA HeadquartersMichael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division at NASA HeadquartersAaron Ridley, mission constellation scientist for NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) at the University of Michigan in Ann ArborBill Swartz, CubeSat principal investigator for the Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes (RAVAN) project at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MarylandWilliam Blackwell, principal investigator for the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsat (TROPICS) mission at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Mass.More information is available. ||
-
-
-
ID: 12602 Produced Video
![Complete transcript available.Music credit: 'Cycle of Life' by Philippe Lhommet [SACEM] from Killer TracksWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.](/vis/a010000/a012600/a012602/LARGE_MP4-12602_Dellingr_large.00000_print.jpg)
NASA Set To Launch Shoebox-sized Satellite Studying Earth's Upper Atmosphere
Read moreNASA scientists and engineers named their new CubeSat after the mythological Norse god of the dawn. Now, just days from launch, they are confident the shoebox-sized satellite Dellingr will live up to its name and inaugurate a new era for scientists wanting to use small, highly reliable satellites to carry out important, and in some cases, never-before-tried science.Dellingr will study how the ionosphere, a region in Earth’s upper atmosphere, interacts with the Sun. Before launch, Dellingr is required to visit to the Magnetic Test Facility at NASA Goddard to test the spacecraft's magnetometers - key instruments for measuring the direction and strength of the magnetic fields that surround Earth.The spacecraft is scheduled to launch this August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station where it will be deployed later into a low-Earth orbit. ||
-