Trumbull_SMAP

            As a rocket propels itself at speeds of about 18,000 miles per hour racing to exit the earth’s gravity there is a fascination and excited that we get knowing the normal person travels the fastest on a commercial jet at minimal speeds of 550 miles per hour.  We as the general public take for granted every time we watch on T.V. and see a NASA launch, whether that be human or unmanned missions. What most of the public doesn’t think of or realize is the time and amount of people invested in each individual project with a destination of space. SMAP is one of these missions, with an estimated launch date in November SMAP has around 400 JPL personal catering to itself with ever need until launch.

            The mission SMAP standing for Soil Moisture Active Passive will be mapping soil moisture and freeze/thaw state from space. SMAP, which is about the size of a car will propel itself away from the earth to near polar, sun synchronous orbit. In sun synchronous orbit SMAP will travel collecting data covering the earths surface in about 2-3 days. SMAP while orbiting will collect 3cm deep of soil analyzing this moisture. This data which then will be processed and open to the general public. This is so important and relevant for us in Southern California as we are at the just the early stages of a long expected drought. This helps with predictions of flooding and droughts which will benefit the agriculture industry.  

            As I pointed out I think that the average human takes for granted the process and understanding behind NASA missions. During the many speakers that came and talked with us one part of SMAP that really grabbed my attention and interest was trouble-shooting issues while SMAP is in the air. Wendy Edelstein, Instrument Manager of SMAP at JPL gave me an understanding and put this process in perspective for me. When on earth if there is a problem with your remote control car that you sent racing down the street you simple walk to where it is stranded and start working on fixing the issue that has arose. For me my ignorance to the extent of how things were fixed 20,000 miles away from earth while in orbit created a blindness to what really goes into a fix or troubleshoot. Wendy explained to us that there are many different issues that could happen while in space that call for different procedures. When it comes to computer or programming issues these were said to tend to be the easy of fixes and usually could be controlled back at station. SMAP is equipped with some duplicate parts in case of failure. These duplicates all are decided on the probability of failure and importance. As we know the more weight and mass of an object that needs to be sent to space the more increase in price. This increase in price is why not all parts can hold duplicates. One of the most important parts to SMAP is the extension and release of boom and reflector. Currently this part is holding the most trouble in full deployment. In a case of an issue of not deploying while in space Wendy said that the control room would employ the part and reemploy again to attempt to work out the kink.  The fascination of sending an object with a cost of near 8 million dollars into space and not being able to complete the task because of failure is mindblowing. However I know that this is of high concern at JPL with the team and have made steps to securing a safe and successful mission.