May 12 1973
From The Space Library
May 12: A press briefing on the earth resources experiment package (EREP) to be launched on the Skylab Workshop May 14 was held at Kennedy Space Center. NASA Associate Administrator for Applications Charles W. Mathews said the 150 EREP investigators included 50 from foreign countries. EREP included six sensors, two camera systems, a spectrometer, a multispectral scanner, a radiometer, a scatterometer, an altimeter, and a thermal data channel: EREP was similar in function to ERTS 1 (launched July 23, 1972) and could discriminate colors more completely, compare electronically and photographically derived imagery, and put up microwave instruments to operate in the different regions of the frequency spectrum, which would allow a look through clouds and under the surface of the earth.
Thomas L. Fischetti, EREP Project Manager at NASA Hq., said that if EREP failed the crew would have equipment to make corrections, modifications, or replacements. The flight plan could also be modified at the last moment for unfavorable weather conditions or new phenomena occurring on the earth. During the three missions EREP would return 40 000 photos and 25 magnetic tapes of data.
Dr. Verl R. Wilmarth, EREP project scientist at Johnson Space Center, said EREP had 9 major investigative areas with 47 subtasks, including stock and crop inventory, surveys of crop damage from insects, land-use classification, and water-resource and geologic mapping. A major effort would be made in sea state analysis. (Transcript)
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