I remember the Florida Space Institute (FSI) getting started my final year at UCF. I was on the Engineering College Council as a student rep, and something like the Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) was the eventual goal of the initiative.
We are just into a better understanding the impact ocean currents have on global warming, but we know next-to-nothing on what solar wind and other cosmic forces do to our Thermosphere and Ionsphere. And that, among other things related to the Earth being effected by our heliosphere, is what GOLD is all about.
I was glad to see UCF's FSI get the pick from NASA, and GOLD became a reality in 2013. FSI had the microwave-sized vehicle built by a Colorado-Boulder based LASP, and contracted out the launch to French-based Arianespace (essentially Airbus-Safran). The result was massive savings over a traditional, NASA program.
There was a bit of a scare with the final stage of the Ariane 5 losing telemetry. But both satellites in its payload made it into orbit. This was a good sign, because the last thing we needed was a lot of finger-pointing at the management and those decisions, which would largely focus on FSI.
We are just into a better understanding the impact ocean currents have on global warming, but we know next-to-nothing on what solar wind and other cosmic forces do to our Thermosphere and Ionsphere. And that, among other things related to the Earth being effected by our heliosphere, is what GOLD is all about.
I was glad to see UCF's FSI get the pick from NASA, and GOLD became a reality in 2013. FSI had the microwave-sized vehicle built by a Colorado-Boulder based LASP, and contracted out the launch to French-based Arianespace (essentially Airbus-Safran). The result was massive savings over a traditional, NASA program.
There was a bit of a scare with the final stage of the Ariane 5 losing telemetry. But both satellites in its payload made it into orbit. This was a good sign, because the last thing we needed was a lot of finger-pointing at the management and those decisions, which would largely focus on FSI.
