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Monster European Environmental Satellite

Posted by michael on from the ozone-hole-what-ozone-hole dept.

andygood writes: "Spaceflight Now has this article about the 'Mother of All Earth Observation Satellites' which will be launched by Europe in early 2002. This thing is the size of a juggernaut and 'every hour will gather as much data as can be stored on a dozen PC hard disks'. 'ENVISAT' (ENVIronmental SATellite) has been in the works for almost fourteen years with a price tag of 2.3 billion (Euro)."

3 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. Likely Outcome by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Satellite: Transmits data showing clear signs of changes in earth's environment


    Scientists: Analyze data


    Special Interest Lobbyists: Point out that at least one scientist somewhere thinks that the changes may not be due to human activity


    Politicians: Heeding lobbyists, maintain status quo


    Net Results: Nothing

  2. Re:Its Just Another Big Spy Satellite by toupsie · · Score: 5, Funny
    Maybe they take some of the tin foil they use to wrap around the satellite and make a new hat for you.

    And yes, we are all watching you! Its all about you. You are so amazingly interesting that we, as taxpayers, are funding programs and supporting political leaders that focus in on your every move.

    INSOC Forever!

    --
    Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
  3. First-hand information by Pascal+Sartoretti · · Score: 5, Informative
    I was the project manager for the ground-level processor of one of the instrument (AATSR if you really want to know which one), so I think that I can provide first-hand information:
    • The data volume for our instrument was a mere 5 GB per 100 minutes orbit, hence approx. 3 GB/hour. This instrument is considered as low-volume for data size, the bigger instrument having approx. two orders of magnitude more data!
    • The design of a satellite such as ENVISAT takes years. It is true that today, one would probably design things differently. Ah, how easy it would be to know 5 years in advance how a system should be designed...
    • This satellite is purely for civilian usage, no spying or whatever. All results will be available to buy (or download for low-resolution images). If ENVISAT would have military aspects, I would certainly not be allowed to talk about it freely on /.
    • All data analysis software was developed in C++. It runs on IBM AIX clusters, but with the goal of being UNIX platform agnostic. No Linux (yet?), sorry, but many open source components were used. ESA is paranoid about vendor lock-up.
    Must I add that it was fun to work on such a project?