Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

238
OBSERVING THE EARTH FROM SPACE
satellites, which required considerable time between inception and flight. The various user
communities, on the other hand, were willing to settle for less advanced hardware so as to fly earlier.
This report, requested by NASA Deputy Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr., and prepared by
Director for Space Applications Leonard Jaffe and Natural Resources Program Chief Peter Badgley,
demonstrates NASA’s bias toward large experimental satellites and includes a rather lengthy instrument
“wish list.”
[1]
Prepared by Jaffe and Badgley at Seamans’ Request
NASA Natural Resources Program
[rubber stamped: “May 13 1965”]
Objective
To conduct an experimental program to determine and develop the feasibility of the
use of satellite borne instrumentation to make measurements of and assist in surveying
the earth’s natural and cultural resources (i.e. atmospherics, agriculture, forestry, hydrology,
geology, geography, oceanography, and so forth).
Scope
1. Studies by user agencies of the applicability of spaceborne instrumentation to
their needs.
2. Accumulation of data from an instrumented aircraft flight test program over calibrated
test sites.
3. Orbital flight testing of instrumentation and development of required data analysis
techniques to determine feasibility and practicability of this space application.
Urgency
User agencies have expressed an urgent need for improvements in their observational
and surveying capabilities to help maintain an adequate supply of natural resources. If
vigorously pursued, the technology of spaceborne systems could be provided to fill many
of the expressed needs by l975.
Requirements of the Experimental Program
The specific and ultimate requirements of the various users must necessarily be a
result of the experimental program. This application will require data collection and
analysis systems of the most advanced types with an optimum mix of high resolution
(small area detailed data samples of resolutions below 20 meters) and moderate resolution
(broad areas, resolutions above 20 meters) coverage. Instruments recording data
from many portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are being considered including optical
(visible), infrared, ultraviolet, and microwave radar. (Reference: “Objectives,
Instrumentation, and Flight Time Recommendation of User Agencies and Cooperating
Scientists Involved in the NASA Natural Resources Program”).
The current NASA experimental program began in l964 with the initiation of discussions
with and studies by the user agencies to assess their requirements and the applicability
of space derived data by analysing [sic] available results from existing programs (Tiros,
Nimbus, Mercury, and Gemini) and simulated results from instrumented aircraft tests.
[2] The instrumented Aircraft Flight Test Program began in mid 1964 with flights of an
infrared imaging system over calibrated agricultural ground test sites near Purdue
University. Since then we have added multispectral cameras, active imaging and scat-