TWO days before sending the septuagenarian senator John Glenn into space,
NASA backed another project that critics say has more to do with PR and politics
than science. The space agency has given the go-ahead to the Triana
mission鈥攁 spacecraft dubbed 鈥淕oreSat鈥� by some commentators, after its main
proponent鈥攁nd selected a design suggested by the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
In March, American Vice-President Al Gore challenged NASA with an idea to
place a spacecraft at the L1 Lagrangian point about 1.5 million kilometres from
Earth鈥攁 position where the gravity of our planet and the Sun balance each
other. It would beam back pictures of the sunlit Earth to be broadcast live over
the Internet.
Gore鈥檚 idea has obvious popular appeal, but many researchers doubt its
scientific merit. 鈥淚t can already be done by existing satellites,鈥� says John
Christy, an atmospheric scientist and satellite expert at the University of
Alabama at Huntsville, who notes that pictures taken by a constellation of
satellites orbiting the Earth could easily be patched together to create a
Triana-type image. 鈥淚t does take a little time to process, which means that
there would be a delay in producing the image,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut what鈥檚 the issue
if it鈥檚 delayed a few hours?鈥�
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The US House of Representatives attempted to ban funding for the Triana
mission, but this provision was removed from the spending bill it was added to
before the bill became law. NASA then requested proposals for the craft鈥檚
design. The Scripps Institution won with its $75 million proposal, which
includes a camera and a radiometer for measuring the solar energy reflected from
the Earth鈥檚 surface, as well as providing the pictures for the Net envisaged by
Gore. 鈥淚t has tremendous value for the study of clouds, aerosols and
vegetation,鈥� says Scripps鈥� Francisco Valero, the mission鈥檚 principal
investigator. This will be useful for studies of climate change, he says.
Some scientists and politicians remain unconvinced by this argument, however.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all garbage and they know it鈥攖hey鈥檙e trying to curry favour with the
administration,鈥� exclaims Dana Rohrabacher, the Republican chairman of the House
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very political mission,鈥� admits Todd Hoeksema, a solar researcher at
Stanford University in California whose team suggested an alternative
configuration for Triana that would have made it possible to study the Sun as
well as the Earth. 鈥淭here鈥檚 some value to looking at the Earth as a whole, but
L1鈥檚 a good place for solar instruments,鈥� he says.
鈥淚nteresting images will come from it,鈥� says Christy. But he would like to
have seen the money used in a different way. 鈥淢y view is that we鈥檇 be better
served by other satellites,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou could probably put 12 instruments in
polar orbit.鈥�