April 20, 2024

NASA Air Pollution Instrument Completes Satellite Integration

Environmental testing will consist of thermal vacuum, characteristics and electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility. TEMPO is currently targeted to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket in January 2023.
Ball Aerospace developed the TEMPO instrument.

Crews recently completed the very first totally incorporated powered testing of the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO), instrument on Intelsat IS40e at Maxar Technologies satellite production center in Palo Alto, California. Credit: Image thanks to Maxar Technologies
Environmental screening will include thermal vacuum, dynamics and electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility. These tests will make sure the spacecraft will effectively sustain conditions it will be exposed to during launch and in the severe environment of area. TEMPO is presently targeted to release aboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket in January 2023.
From its geostationary orbit TEMPO will likewise form part of an air quality satellite “virtual constellation” that will track contamination around the Northern Hemisphere.
Kelly Chance, of the Center for Astrophysics|Harvard & & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the principal detective for TEMPO. Ball Aerospace constructed the TEMPO instrument.

Pace operations architecture. Credit: NASA
Teams successfully completed the first completely integrated powered testing of the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument on Intelsat IS40e on June 30. This screening at Maxar Technologies satellite manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California, marks the conclusion of the TEMPO Instrument combination with the IS40e satellite.
From its geostationary orbit (geosynchronous equatorial orbit)– a high Earth orbit that permits satellites to match Earths rotation– TEMPO will take per hour daytime air quality observations at an unprecedented spatial resolution. Its measurements will include the entire lower 48 United States, reaching from Puerto Rico and Mexico to northern Canada, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
” The conclusion of TEMPO Instrument integration with its host satellite will enable Intelsat IS40e to transition into ecological testing, which brings us one significant and exciting step better to launch,” said Kevin Daugherty, TEMPO project supervisor at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.