NASA's nearly $1 billion PACE mission successfully launched into polar orbit early this morning on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This is the first time for NASA since 1960. “Once operational, PACE will enable scientists to assess the health of Earth's atmosphere and climate and oceans like never before,” Space.com said. From the report: Incidentally, PACE was the first U.S. government mission launched into polar orbit from Florida since November 30, 1960. That day, the So Able Star rocket took off in such a trajectory but failed, raining debris over Cuba. , some of which had apparently killed cows. Rather than risk further accidents, the United States decided to carry out all subsequent polar launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base (now Vandenberg Space Force Base) in California, which remains the case to this day. But PACE wasn't the first mission of any kind to launch into polar orbit from Florida's Space Coast in 60 years. SpaceX had completed 11 such commercial missions before sending PACE on its way.
PACE's handlers will now work to speed up the 10.5-foot-long (3.2-meter) spacecraft and its various subsystems. After this checkout period, the satellite can begin scientific activities. The work is done by her three pieces of equipment. One of the spectrometers, called the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), will map the ocean's different hues in detail over an unprecedented range, from near-infrared wavelengths to ultraviolet light. These colors are determined by the interaction of sunlight with particles in seawater, such as chlorophyll, produced by photosynthetic plankton, the base of the ocean food web. Therefore, according to PACE team members, OCI will reveal a great deal about the health and condition of marine ecosystems.
“PACE's unprecedented spectral range will provide the first-ever global measurements aimed at determining the composition of phytoplankton communities,” NASA officials wrote in the PACE mission description. . “This will greatly improve our ability to understand Earth's changing marine ecosystems, manage natural resources such as fisheries, and identify harmful algae.” His other two instruments on the satellite are polarized It's a total. They will measure how the vibrations of light in a plane, known as polarization, are affected by the passage of oceans, clouds, and aerosols (particles suspended in the atmosphere). “By measuring the polarization state of light from ultraviolet to shortwave waves at various angles, we can obtain detailed information about the atmosphere and oceans, including particle size and composition,” NASA officials said in the mission description. ing.
