91av

A PROPOSED satellite that has been condemned as a politician’s whim really
could accomplish good science after all, according to a National Academy of
Sciences report. But the report doesn’t say if the mission would have made the
cut among NASA projects if it had not been pushed by Vice-President Al Gore.

In 1998, Gore proposed launching the Triana satellite and using it to send a
constant real-time picture of the Earth over the Internet. NASA started building the satellite
(91av, 7 November 1998, p 5), but Congress
halted construction when about half of its $75 million budget had been
spent and called on the academy to assess its merits.

The report concludes that the satellite will have value, mostly as an
“exploratory mission” in operating Earth-observing satellites in an unusually
high orbit. Triana would be stationed at the L1 Lagrangian point about 1.5
million kilometres from Earth where spacecraft can easily maintain their
position. Triana’s broad-spectrum camera for atmospheric observations, radiation
detectors and solar wind instrument would all have scientific value, the
committee decided.

The committee did not comment on whether Triana should have been funded in
the first place. “It’s safe to say that if one had started from the fundamental
scientific drivers, a mission to L1 would not have emerged as the top
candidate,” says Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. Triana’s future now lies
with Congress.