Engineers and technicians from around the world have completed the construction of a new satellite that will conduct the first worldwide scan of Earth’s surface water and investigate ocean currents on a microscopic size. A year before launch, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission has begun its last testing phase.
Collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the UK Space Agency, and the United States Air Force (USAF) (UK Space Agency). Data from the SUV-sized satellite will allow researchers to follow the volume and position of water throughout the world by measuring the height of Earth’s salt and fresh water, including oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Small, spinning ocean currents absorb excess heat, moisture, and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and SWOT will assist to evaluate the consequences of climate change on the planet’s water. Using data from the mission, scientists will be able to track how much water is flowing into and out of the planet’s lakes and rivers.
According to Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, a NASA program scientist at NASA Headquarters, “SWOT is our first global snapshot of all surface water that we have now, how the water moves around the planet, and what happens to it in a new climate”
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California sent the satellite’s scientific core to Cannes, France, in June. With help from CNES and Thales Alenia Space, they’ve been working to connect the satellite’s science instruments to the rest of the satellite and guarantee that the electrical connections are operating properly ever since they were first discovered.
A SWOT deputy project manager said the finest part of the project has been witnessing two sophisticated systems constructed by different teams around the world come together and work. In June, Kaki and a small JPL crew of roughly 25 people traveled to France to accompany the mission’s scientific instruments. In order to perform key tests and procedures in person, the team has to relocate to Vandenberg Space Force Base in Central California, where the SWOT satellite will be launched in September 2022.
JPL’s Nacer Chahat, the mission’s payload system engineer who is working from Cannes, said being away from home for so long is difficult. “But I’m lucky because I’m surrounded by amazing coworkers,” he added. His presence has kept an eye on the spacecraft’s testing and troubleshooting.
For the following six months, the satellite will undergo three stages of testing to ensure that it can withstand the harsh conditions of space and the rigors of launch. It will be attached to a device known as a shake table, which mimics the rattling and shaking that occurs during a launch. It will then enter an acoustic room where it will be subjected to high-decibel sounds resembling those that would be heard during a spacecraft’s launch. Afterwards, they’ll place SWOT in a room that resembles the temperature fluctuations and vacuum of space. Additional testing is required to ensure that the satellite can resist any electromagnetic interference, including signals from various elements of the spacecraft as well as from other satellites, before it is launched.
“Then we’ll ship the spacecraft to the launch site,” Kaki stated. The team in Vandenberg will put the final touches on the satellite, which will be launched no sooner than November 2022, at Vandenberg.
Scientists on the expedition are also hard at work, getting ready for when the spacecraft reaches orbit. To test their analytic methods and prepare for the “calibration and validation” stage after launch, researchers are employing simulated data. To guarantee that the instruments are gathering and analyzing the data they are supposed to, researchers compare data from the satellite to measurements collected on the ground.
Like the engineering team, the science team is made up of people from all around the world. SWOT project scientist Lee-Lueng Fu says the finest part of his job is working with a broad international research team of oceanographers and hydrologists from around the world. “Even after 40 years of dedication to Earth research, this experience has broadened the horizons of my scientific career.”
