Monitoring the raindrops that keep falling on your head from space
January 8, 2014 8:40 AM Subscribe
The successor to the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the NASA/JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) spacecraft is preparing for launch at the Japanese Tanegashima Space Center. GPM will be the newest international Precipitation Measurement Mission and will be the core observatory of the GPM Constellation.
The two sensors on-board GPM are the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The GPM/DPR team has produced a fantastic anime about the DPR instrument.
The GPM core observatory is a project of international cooperation (pdf) between the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The GMI instrument was built by Ball Corporation, of jar, university, and aerospace fame. The DPR instrument was built by JAXA and the Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT).
The GPM Constellation will consist of the GPM core observatory and partner spacecraft Megha-Tropiques (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales/Indian Space Research Organisation), NOAA-19 (called NOAA-N' before its launch a.k.a. the spacecraft that fell to the factory floor), Global Change Observation Mission 1 - Water (JAXA), Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F19/F20 (United States Department of Defense), Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (NASA/NOAA), MetOp B & MetOp C (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and Suomi-NPP (NASA/NASA Dryden Innovative Partnerships Office).
GPM Core is currently scheduled for launch on February 27th, 2014 on-board a Japanese H-IIA expendable launch vehicle.
Bonus! A secondary payload on the GPM Core H-IIA launch vehicle will be TeikyoSat-3, a life science micro-satellite built by Teikyo University that will grow mold in space to study the effects of microgravity and space radiation.
Please enjoy these Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Resources:
Precipitation Education
GPM Core Observatory Paper Model
GPM Mission Brochure
GPM E/PO Metrics
GPM Budget
The GPM core observatory is a project of international cooperation (pdf) between the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The GMI instrument was built by Ball Corporation, of jar, university, and aerospace fame. The DPR instrument was built by JAXA and the Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT).
The GPM Constellation will consist of the GPM core observatory and partner spacecraft Megha-Tropiques (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales/Indian Space Research Organisation), NOAA-19 (called NOAA-N' before its launch a.k.a. the spacecraft that fell to the factory floor), Global Change Observation Mission 1 - Water (JAXA), Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F19/F20 (United States Department of Defense), Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (NASA/NOAA), MetOp B & MetOp C (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and Suomi-NPP (NASA/NASA Dryden Innovative Partnerships Office).
GPM Core is currently scheduled for launch on February 27th, 2014 on-board a Japanese H-IIA expendable launch vehicle.
Bonus! A secondary payload on the GPM Core H-IIA launch vehicle will be TeikyoSat-3, a life science micro-satellite built by Teikyo University that will grow mold in space to study the effects of microgravity and space radiation.
Please enjoy these Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Resources:
Precipitation Education
GPM Core Observatory Paper Model
GPM Mission Brochure
GPM E/PO Metrics
GPM Budget
The scenes about NASA-JAXA collaboration in the anime are kind of hilarious.
posted by zamboni at 9:31 AM on January 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by zamboni at 9:31 AM on January 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Cool!
Also, I'm starting to experiment with replacing "in bed!" at the end of fortune cookie fortunes with "from space!"
posted by Naberius at 10:33 AM on January 8, 2014
Also, I'm starting to experiment with replacing "in bed!" at the end of fortune cookie fortunes with "from space!"
posted by Naberius at 10:33 AM on January 8, 2014
I am really excited to dig into all of this!
posted by Narrative Priorities at 11:10 AM on January 8, 2014
posted by Narrative Priorities at 11:10 AM on January 8, 2014
Best comment on the YouTube vid: "I bet they're using MechJeb."
posted by smoothvirus at 5:46 PM on January 8, 2014
posted by smoothvirus at 5:46 PM on January 8, 2014
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posted by Fists O'Fury at 9:07 AM on January 8, 2014 [2 favorites]