Mar 15 2005
From The Space Library
NASA and the FAA brought a demonstration of the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) to Foley Square in downtown New York City. SATS represented one aspect of a public-private partnership focused on developing technology that would enable more people to fly directly to their destinations at their own convenience. The ultimate goal of the SATS project was for people to be able to access air travel in much the same way that they hail a cab. NASA's SATS Project Manager Jerry N. Hefner described a scenario in which a person would board a plane in his or her neighborhood to fly to a destination 500 miles away, without changing planes and without going through a hub. Instead, SATS would fly into and out of underused rural and suburban airports, reducing congestion at larger airports and easing traffic on interstate highways across the country. SATS Project Manager for the FAA Peter C. McHugh commented that those involved in the project believed that, as the travel population using SATS aircraft grew, minimal interference or intersection with the larger airline system would occur. (Roger Clark for NY1 Cable TV, “NASA Tries To Change the Way Americans Fly,” 16 March 2005.)
NASA selected Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation of Broomfield, Colorado, to develop, manufacture, and provide prelaunch and postlaunch support for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument. The total contract value was approximately US$100.2 million over a period of seven years and nine months. The GMI, a conical-scan microwave radiometer, would fly on the GPM Core spacecraft as part of a multinational collaborative effort to measure global precipitation. The spacecraft, which NASA had not yet built, would be the first in a constellation of spacecraft deployed under NASA's GPM mission. The GMI instrument would make calibrated, radiometric measurements from space at multiple microwave frequencies and polarizations. NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Ghassem R. Asrar remarked that scientists need to know the amount and distribution of precipitation worldwide so that they can assess the quantity and quality of fresh water resources for food and fiber production, human consumption, and other societal needs. Experts in water resource management, agriculture, transportation, forestry, weather forecasting, and other fields, would be able to use future research findings based on GMI data. (NASA, “NASA Selects Firm To Provide GPM Microwave Imager Instrument,” news release c05-g, 15 March 2005, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/mar/HQ_c05g_gpm_imager.html (accessed 29 June 2009); Matt Branaugh, “Ball Gets In On NASA Mission,” Boulder Daily Camera (CO), 16 March 2005.)
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