+ 1970 News Releases (7.6 Mb PDF file) - NASA

N,-,FIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
MANNEDSPACE[RAFT ,.Houson
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483-5111 June 22, 1970
MSC 70-O
Texas
HOUSTON_ TEXAS--The National Aernonautics and Space Administration
has selected General Electric Co., Valley Forge, Pa., for the design,
development_and delivery of a microwave radiometer-scatterometer/altimeter
instrument to be flown in the Workshop of the Skylab manned space flight
program in 1972.
Estimated value of the cost-plus-incentive-fee contract is $5
million. Flight hardware delivery is scheduled for October 1971. The
contract will be managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston.
Objectives of the microwave radiometer-scatterometer/altimeter
experiment are to evaluate the usefulness of passive and active microrave
systems in providing information on sea and land conditions, such as
ocean surface roughness; wave heights; large-scale oceanic wind fields
near the surface; snow cover, frozen and unfrozen ground and soil
moisture conditions. The microwave data will be correlated with
measurements in the visible and infrared bands to be made aboard the
Skylab
Workshop.
The altimeter will determine return signal characteristics for
a variety of Earth and sea surface conditions to guide the design of
future orbital geolotic altimeters.
The microwave radiometer-scatterometer/altimeter will be flown
as part of the Earth Resources Experiment Package under development
for Skylab. Other experiments include a multispectral photographic
facility, an infrared scanner and a lO-band multispectral scanner.
Principal objectives of the package of experiments are to gather
data over a broad portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for Earth
resources studies_ using man in selecting sites and operating instruments
for specific measurements, and to help determine the optimum
sensors and techniques for application in future Earth orbital_ manned
and automated_ information gathering systems.