Quickshot: Twin NASA Spacecraft Headed To Ends Of The Earth Launching May 22

  • Released Thursday, May 16, 2024
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Scroll down page to see pre-recorded soundbites available for download + animations of the satellites.Check out 5 Things to Know About NASA’s Tiny Twin Polar Satellites !

Scroll down page to see pre-recorded soundbites available for download + animations of the satellites.

Check out 5 Things to Know About NASA’s Tiny Twin Polar Satellites !

Twin NASA satellites launching May 22 are headed to ends of the Earth!
The PREFIRE mission will fill in critical missing data from Earth’s polar regions.


A new pair of shoebox-size climate satellites will soon be studying two of the most remote regions on Earth — the Arctic and Antarctic. Called the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE), the mission’s twin satellites will measure the amount of heat the planet emits to space from these polar regions. This information is key to understanding how the planet’s incoming and outgoing heat influences Earth’s climate.

The mission’s cube satellites, or CubeSats, will both launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The first launch is planned for no earlier than May 22, 2024.

The planet’s poles help to regulate our climate by radiating a lot of the heat initially absorbed at the tropics back into space. Global temperatures are going up because of the increase in greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere – and the Arctic is warming more than 2.5 times faster than the rest of Earth. Data from NASA’s PREFIRE mission will target the critical polar regions to inform climate and ice models, improving scientists’ predictions of how the planet’s sea levels and weather are likely to change in a warming world.

PREFIRE was jointly developed by NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is managed by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

For more information about the mission check out the following links:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/prefire

https://prefire.ssec.wisc.edu

**** If you are interested in a one-on-one interview, please reach out to the following people at JPL:

Jane J. Lee
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov

Andrew Wang
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov

Mary White / PREFIRE Project Manager / NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory / April 18, 2024

TRT 2:20. Soundbites are separated by slates with the associated question. Full transcript is available under the download button. Questions answered are as follows:

1. How will PREFIRE’s measurements help scientists?

2. What excites you about this mission?

3. What breakthroughs were needed to create this mission?

4. What gap is PREFIRE filling in NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing missions?

Tristan L’Ecuyer [prounounced: “Leh-kwee-yay”] / PREFIRE Principal Investigator / University of Wisconsin / March 11, 2024

TRT 2:00. Soundbites are separated by slates with the associated question. Full transcript is available under the download button. Questions answered are as follows:

1. What is PREFIRE and what will it do?

2. What is the biggest concern scientists have right now about the Earth’s polar regions?

3. How will PREFIRE make its measurements?

4. What will scientists do with the measurements PREFIRE makes?

5. Why is it important to make these measurements now?

Karen St. Germain / NASA Earth Science Division Director / May 14, 2024

TRT 2:49. Soundbites are separated by slates with the associated question. Full transcript is available under the download button. Questions answered are as follows:

1. How does understanding our home planet fit into NASA's science goals?

2. What is PREFIRE?

3. How will PREFIRE add to our understanding of Earth and climate science?

4. How will communities be able to use the measurements that PREFIRE makes?

Kate Calvin / Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor / May 14, 2024

TRT 3:23. Soundbites are separated by slates with the associated question. Full transcript is available under the download button. Questions answered are as follows:

1. What is PREFIRE?

2. How will PREFIRE add to our understanding of Earth and climate science?

3. Why is it important to study heat loss at the poles?

4. How will data from PREFIRE help with climate science?

5. How are NASA's spacecrafts helping us better understand our changing planet?

Animation of one of two PREFIRE CubeSats turning 360 degrees and then opening its solar arrays.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Animation showing the PREFIRE satellite with it's solar arrays open. The animation continues to show the twin PREFIRE satellites side-by-side doing 360 degree turns.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Animation starts on a wide shot of the Earth. Camera angle tilts up to see one of two PREFIRE satellites coming toward the camera and opening its solar arrays. Animation continues with the satellite swinging past the camera and flying over the Earth.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

PREFIRE animation compilation. No audio.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For More Information

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Thursday, May 16, 2024.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 at 1:02 PM EDT.

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