Earth Observing-1

The Earth Observing-1 Mission (EO-1) satellite is part of NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP), to develop and validate a number of instrument and spacecraft bus breakthrough technologies designed to enable the development of future earth imaging observatories that will have a significant increase in performance while also having reduced cost and mass.

Its Advanced Land Imager (ALI) measures nine different wavelengths simultaneously, instead of the seven measured by the imager in Landsat 7. This permits a greater flexibility in false-color imagery. Another improvement is that instead of having an imaging spectrometer that sweeps from side to side, the ALI has a linear array of spectrometers that each scan a strip of ground parallel to that of adjacent spectrometers. In order to compare the two imagers, EO-1 follows Landsat 7 in its orbit by exactly one minute. Other new technologies include:


 * Hyperion imaging spectrometer recording more than 200 wavelengths;
 * phased array communications antenna;
 * optical fiber cables connect the data logger with the two IBM RAD6000s;
 * teflon-fuelled pulsed plasma thruster;
 * lightweight, flexible solar panel;
 * carbon-coated radiators for thermal control;
 * Linear Etalon Imaging Spectrometer Array equipped with a new atmospheric correction device.

EO-1 has also been used to test new software, like the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment. This allows the spacecraft to decide for itself how best to create a desired image. It is only limited by a priority list of different types of images, and by forecasts of cloud cover provided by the NOAA.

It was expected to function for twelve months and was designed to function for eighteen months. Those expectations have been greatly exceeded.