7-8-2008 - Critical Design Review of the SAC-D/Aquarius space mission : On July, 24 the Critical Design Review of the SAC-D/Aquarius space mission was completed, with the participation of specialists from NASA, CONAE, CNEA, INVAP and some academic institutions, both from Argentina and the US. All participants agreed on the full success of the meeting.
El On July, 24 the Critical Design Review of the SAC-D/Aquarius space mission was completed, with the participation of specialists from NASA, CONAE, CNEA, INVAP and some academic institutions, both from Argentina and the US. All participants agreed on the full success of the meeting. The collaboration between CONAE, NASA and the rest of the participants – especially INVAP as main contractor - was “seamless” according to the general impression.
The high quality information, flawlessly presented, was analyzed in depth, and the recommendations and requests from the revision were all valuable and incorporated into the project. Like in other, similar situations, the representatives of the US space agency as well as the independent US consultants expressed their satisfaction with the warmth of the Argentine hosts. They were especially aware of the effort being made by CONAE, INVAP y other Argentine institutions to reach the launching date in 2010, in coincidence with the bicentenary of the Argentine independence in May, 2010.
As is well known, SAC-D/Aquarius is a joint mission of NASA and CONAE whose goal is to measure for the first time on a global scale, the salinity of the oceans. This data is of fundamental importance in relation with the Climate Change phenomena. For this purpose, JPL-NASA is building the highly complex “Aquarius” - the specific measuring instrument to be installed on board of SAC-D. This satellite will also carry other scientific and technological payloads, from Argentina (ROSA, TDP, MWR, HSC, DCS) and France (CARMEN-1). There will also be a collaboration of Italian ground stations and of the Brazilian LIT testing laboratory, where the final tests previous to launching will be performed.