The use of small satellites in the NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) Earth Observing System (EOS)

As NASA looks to reshape the Earth Observing System for the post-2002 mission timelines, we argue that small, commercial buses can be modified to carry key instruments as “hot” spares, technology demonstrations, or in support of new programmatic imperatives. We consider the particular case of the Indium bus flying a new sensor to demonstrate the utility of measuring ozone via stellar occultations. We find that a very low cost demonstration mission could be mounted that could be launched to fly in association with a planned EOS element, EOS CHEM. This project would serve to validate the new measurement approach and it would demonstrate the idea of launching to replace or update an element in an existing constellation. Such a mission would be a natural follow-on to the PICASSO-CENA ESSP mission. PICASSO-CENA is planned to fly in formation with EOS PM. Our mission would demonstrate that many of the current instruments and measurement requirements addressed by EOS AM and PM could be maintained through use of such small satellites, an issue not fully addressed by PICASSO-CENA or any other ESE mission.