Mission
"The ARGOS satellite will provide a tremendous payoff in critical technologies such as imaging, satellite propulsion and space-based computing. These areas will become important as more and more applications of space are developed," said Colonel Tom Mead, program manager of the DoD Space Test Program.
The ARGOS had a design life of three years and was part of the DoD Space Test Program (STP), which supports the Air Force, Army, Navy, BMDO (now MDA), NASA, and various international space agencies. The nine ARGOS payloads, addressing more than 30 research objectives, conducted upper atmospheric observations and technology demonstrations. These included sensor technology for the International Space Station, as well as three high-priority ultraviolet imaging experiments and an X-ray sensor. The remaining experiments investigate ion propulsion, gas ionization physics, plume detection capabilities, and orbital debris. As part of DOD STP, ARGOS served the need to fly Department of Defense payloads that cannot be flown on the Space Shuttle or aboard small launch vehicles due to complexity, size, mission duration, or other constraints. The Naval Research Laboratory, U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Office of Naval Research have provided payloads for the ARGOS mission.
Mission Termination: Per the Kirtland AFB mission control center, "As of 1500 Zulu on 31 July 2003, support of all ARGOS operations has been terminated. Decaying inertial reference units has led to a tumble of the aircraft. As a result, communications with the spacecraft have been lost."
Read more about this topic: ARGOS (satellite)
Famous quotes containing the word mission:
“Every Age has its own peculiar faith.... Any attempt to translate into facts the mission of one Age with the machinery of another, can only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts. Defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end, such attempts might produce martyrs, but never lead to victory.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“The mission is too important to allow you to jeopardize it.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)