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VIRTUALISATION Europeans launch GOCE gravity mapper mission
VIRTUALISATION Europeans launch GOCE gravity mapper mission | Europeans launch GOCE gravity mapper mission |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Wednesday, 18 March 2009 | |
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The mission was launched by a Rockot launch vehicle (from Russian/German-based Eurockot Launch Services headquartered in Bremen, Germany) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The launch site is approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of the capital of Russia, Moscow. It lifted off at 15:21 Central European Time (CET), or 1421 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). About one orbit later, two Breeze-KM upper stage maneuvers got the satellite into a near-Sun-synchronous (with a high inclination, close to 90 degrees), low-Earth orbit (an orbit not very far from Earth) of about 285 kilometers (177 miles) above the Earth’s surface and an inclination of 96.7 degrees to the Earth’s equator. Later, in later August or early September 2009, the spacecraft will descend to about 263 kilometers (163 miles). The GOCE mission needs to wait about six months before going operational in order to charge up its solar-powered batteries, along with some time to check out the status of the GOCE satellite. During its time in space, its ion-propulsion engine will expel out xenon atoms in order to maintain a constant orbital height about the Earth. Being so low in its orbit, the satellite will be subjects to a lot of drag from the particles in the Earth's uppermost atmosphere. Its sleek aerodynamic body (it’s shaped like an arrow with fins) also helps to keep drag (friction) down to a minimum, which helps to keep the spacecraft in orbit and out of a descending trajectory back to Earth. Page two talks about gravity here on Earth and the mission of GOCE. |
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