RARR Mission Profile

A vast amount of NASA’s scientific space research was directed at the region between the Sun and the Earth. as opposed to research on the planets.

The wide variety this research is indicated by a selection of the satellites supported by Carnarvon RARR. They are arbitrarliy divided into three groups: looking at Earth, looking near Earth, and looking outward.

Looking at Earth

GEOS (Geodetic Earth Orbiting Satellite) 

- locating geographic points and the location and magnitude of gravitational anomalies

NIMBUS 

- meteorology and oceanic phytoplankton and particulates

SMS (Synchronous Meteorological Satellite) 

the first of the GOES series

ERTS (Earth Resources Technology Satellite) renamed Landsat 

– monitoring the Earth’s surface, land cover, land use & natural resources

Looking at the near-Earth environment

AE (Atmosphere Explorer) 

– studying processes within the thermosphere and ionosphere and capable of dipping into the lower atmosphere

OGO (Orbiting Geophysical Observatory) 

- with very high apogees and very low perigees, studying geophysical and solar phenomena in the magnetosphere and interplanetary space

IMP (Interplanetary Monitoring Platform) 

– a number of IMPs in a variety of orbits provided simultaneous measurement to obtain the spatial and temporal relationship of geophysical and interplanetary phenomena

Pegasus & MTS (Meteoroid Technology Satellite) 

– study of meteoroid impacts in near-earth orbit

Looking out from Earth

HEOS (Highly Eccentric Orbiting Satellite) 

– examining magnetic fields outside the Earth’s magnetosphere

OSO (Orbiting Solar Observatory) 

– observing the Sun’s ultraviolet and x-ray radiation unfiltered by the Earth’s atmosphere

OAO (Orbiting Astronomical Observatory) 

– measuring stars (pulsars & x-ray binaries) with UV telescopes & x-ray instrumentation.