NASA Plans LandSat 9, Earth’s Most Excessive
For over forty years, Landsat has quietly however persistently been taking pictures of the surface of the Earth, amassing a formidable collection of information about our planet. This month, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) introduced that the trouble would proceed to span the generations, by transferring forward with the event and deliberate launch of LandSat 9 in 2023.
Images: 1) NASA’s Operation IceBridge found this large crack across the Pine Island Glacier. It is deep and vast enough to nearly engulf the Statue of Liberty, being 820 toes (~250 meters) across at its widest point and about 200 toes (~61 meters) at its deepest (NASA’s Operation IceBridge). 2) NASA’s Michael Studinger aboard the IceBridge DC-8 plane that surveyed the glacier. The realm cracking off may become an iceberg the scale of all of New York City, about 310 sq. miles (800 sq. km) (NASA’s Operation IceBridge).
Originally referred to as Earth Resources Expertise Satellite Program, the Landsat Program was inspired by photographs of Earth taken by Apollo Moon missions within the 1960’s. While climate satellites had been already monitoring Earth’s ambiance, they weren’t designed to collect terrain data. The specific intent of the Landsat Program was to make … Read the rest