Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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OBSERVING THE EARTH FROM SPACE
eral government meeting extensive financial commitments for a 15 year period.
Should changes occur in the international price structure which adversely
effect profitability, i.e., undercutting of U.S. commercial data prices by a foreign
competitor, a commercial operator might elect to abandon the enterprise, or use
the “best effort” principle to demand increased federal price subsidies.
(3) Feasibility
This proposal would replace existing weather ground systems, which need
technical improvement, and would use current Landsat facilities and equipment.
In addition, a centralized facility is proposed for both land and environmental
data based on Landsat-type hardware. Centralization is technically valid, but does
not exploit what is currently known about the advantage of distributed processing
architecture, insofar as service to users is concerned[,] i.e., throughput, availability,
and accessibility of data. The proposed technology to be employed on
COMSAT’s LANDSTAR, the successor to LANDSAT, includes linear array focal
planes and on-board data compression capability. These are needed improvements
if high resolution solid-state sensors are adopted. Not mentioned, but very
much needed on any follow-on sensor, is the addition of cooled focal planes for
short-wave and thermal infrared data, and a capability of off-nadir pointing for
more frequent coverage of the same scene. The addition of synthetic aperture
radar sensors for data set merging is very appealing as is the integration of weather
and land remote sensing systems for [7] more efficient programming of data
acquisition and low-orbit collection of environmental data. COMSAT recognizes
that guaranteed progress in technological advances and maintenance of U.S.
technological leadership can only be realized if government retains an active role
in advanced technology development, either alone or in some joint role with the
operator of the systems.
(4) National Security and Foreign Policy Concerns:
The COMSAT proposal is based on a “best effort” principle which does not
commit the Corporation to provide continuous services over the lifetime of the
contract. A disruption of land remote sensing and weather services could have
substantial foreign policy implications in terms of traditional U.S. international
data exchange policies which emphasize continuity and nondiscrimination.
COMSAT states its intentions to broaden the primary data market by limiting
secondary reproduction and distribution of data. This could ultimately jeopardize
the continuous and reciprocal international exchange of meteorological data
upon which this country is vitally dependent.
If a national emergency required disruption of commercial service in Metsats
and/or Landsats, the government would have to reimburse the commercial operator
for lost revenues. This would entail an additional government expense not
incurred under government ownership and would constitute an additional complicating
factor in making national security and foreign policy decisions.
COMSAT proposes to sell “surplus” DCS (data collection system) capacity to
commercial users which could be used for non-environmental purposes.
However, by agreement in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU),
DCS frequencies are to be used exclusively for environmental monitoring.
No contractual or legislative stipulation should preclude the government
from developing its own satellite systems for national security purposes.
[8] B. Environmental Satellite Data, Inc. (ESD)
ESD does not address Landsat or the overall weather satellite system. Instead the
company offers to assume responsibility for a small segment of the GOES data processing