DSCOVR

Spacecraft nº:

US spacecraft nº:

Launch data: Designation  40390 / 15007A Launch date  11 Feb 2015 - 23:03 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-40 Launch vehicle  Falcon-9 v1.1 Mission  Earth observing, solar science L1 orbit: Perigee / Apogee  187 x 1371156 km Eccentricity   Inclination   33.1° Period   min

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission now stands prepared for launch. (Credit: NASA, NOAA,SpaceX, Getty Images)

Spacecraft data: Prime manufacturer  Swales (bus) Platform  SMEX-Lite Bus Operator  NASA, NOAA Mass at launch  570 kg Dry Mass  425 kg with an additional 145 kg of hydrazine propellant Basic shape   Dimension (m)   Equipment  Scripps-EPIC, Scripps-NISTAR, Plasma-Mag Solar array  2 deployable solar arrays Stabilization  3-axis Propulsion  10 × hydrazine thrusters DC power   Design lifetime

DSCOVR in cleanroom. (Credits: NASA)

DSCOVR in the final stages of integration prior to shipment to the Cape. Two perspectives, one with engineers in a clean room revealing the relative size. (Photo Credits: NASA/GSFC))

Description history:

• DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate ObserVatoRy) is an interplanetary space weather station located at the L1 Lagrange point, a gravitationally-stable point nearly one million miles from Earth in line with the sun. From this location, DSCOVR will provide forecasters with critical information about the supersonic solar wind that continually streams from the sun to interact with Earth′s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere.
• Its original mission name could not be more noble, Triana – the name of Columbus’ sailor that first saw the New World. Then, it got tangled in the ignoble politics of space and climate change.
• The spacecraft was completed and ready to be shipped to Cape Canaveral in 2001. It was scheduled for launch on board NASA’s flagship, the Space Shuttle Columbia, on what became Columbia’s ill-fated last mission in January 2003. But DSCOVR had become the spoils of the victor. Bush had defeated Gore and the victor pulled the rug from under Triana.
• The political story of the DSCOVR spacecraft is wrapped in the political tug of war over Climate Change. Senator Al Gore had long recognized the risks to humanity, to species extinction and destruction of ecosystems by the human-caused climate change. As vice president, in 1998, Gore proposed to NASA the concept that became Triana to monitor and better understand Climate Change. His political opponents labeled Triana “GoreSat”, and its constant downlink stream of “Whole Earth” images as “an expensive screensaver”.
• The former Republican congressman from Texas, Dick Armey, referring to GoreSat, said, “This idea supposedly came from a dream. Well, I once dreamed I caught a 10-foot bass. But I didn’t call up the Fish and Wildlife Service and ask them to spend $30 million to make sure it happened.” This was the rash and risk beholding a spacecraft conceived by politicians. However, while political egos were bruised, Triana, now DSCOVR, was never damaged and was placed into cold storage and for two Bush terms was bathed in pure nitrogen gas to minimize any damage to electronics.
• As sure as the Sun rises every morning, DSCOVR was pulled out of storage in November 2008. Despite the years of idle time and technological advances passing it by, DSCOVR still holds an excellent array of instruments. The National Research Council was commissioned to analyze and reported to Congress that Triana was “Strong and scientifically vital.” Beginning in 2009, the instruments were re-certified for flight re-integrated onto the spacecraft bus. Filters were replaced on the 30 cm (12 inch) telescopic camera.
• DSCOVR’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) will provide a first of its kinds continuous stream of 8 km resolution global images of the rotating sunlit Earth. The images in 3 bands are in contrast to the future geostationary GOES-R weather satellites (a pair) which will have a 0.5 and 1 km resolution images but only for the western hemisphere. DSCOVR will pair up with ACE to monitor particles and fields streaming from the Sun towards the Earth, 1.5 million km (1 million miles) away.
• DSCOVR now becomes the legacy to a long line of Solar-Terrestial monitoring spacecraft. If you recall last August 10th, the spacecraft ISEE-3 flew past the Earth after over 20 years out of contact and 35 years in space. ISEE-3 became the first vehicle to utilize the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point 1 (L1) to monitor the Solar wind. Several vehicles followed, specialized probes even clusters were developed to understand the complex interaction between the Sun and the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere.
• DSCOVR will join two existing vehicles – the aging Advanced Composition Explorer. It carries a Faraday cup instrument to measure solar wind speed, an electron spectrometer and a magnetometer to measure local plasma and fields, as well as a broad band (0.2 to 100 microns) radiometer to measure the Earth's total energy output and the Earth Polychomatic Imaging Camera to return images of the full Earth disk.

DSCOVR’s instrument payload, low-cost (~$250M) and scientific objectives stand in contrast to the 12 years of political limbo that the mission withstood. (Image Credit: NASA)

The DSCOVR spacecraft will be delivered to the Sun-Earth L1 point, 1.5 million km from the Earth, directly in front of the Sun. A Halo (Lissajous) orbit will stabilize the craft’s position around the L1 point while keeping it outside the radio noise emanating from the Sun. (Illustratin Credit: NASA)

Mission details:

• For DSCOVR – the payload of SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 launch, waiting one more week is a yawn. The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft has withstood a delay of over 12 years. Word from Cape Canaveral is that the Air Force is delaying the launch of the next Falcon 9 until February 9th, 2015. Two days earlier, the launch date had been moved from Jan.13, Jan.23, Jan.29 to January 31st.
• DSCOVR was launched on Feb 11, 2015 with a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral into a 184 x 186 km x 37 deg parking orbit; 30 min after launch the Falcon 9 second stage restarted to boost DSCOVR into a 187 x 1371156 km x 37 deg transfer orbit. When the probe reaches the L1 point it will enter a Lissajous orbit, tracing out a complex pattern around the gravitationally stable balance point. Radius of this pattern will initially be around 250000 km.

External links:

• Deep Space Climate Observatory Mission Briefing
• DSCOVR Home page
• EOportal.org Satellite description
• Spaceflight 101: Satellite & launch information
  
• Satellite tracking: Unable to track.