The Future
TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurements) is a second, very similar spacecraft launched successfully on June 21, 2010 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Since October 2010, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X fly in a close formation at distances of only a few hundred metres and record data synchronously. This unique twin satellite constellation will allow the generation of global digital elevation models (DEMs) of an unprecedented accuracy, coverage and quality – a consistent DEM of the Earth’s land surface is envisaged to be acquired and generated within three years after launch. This DEM is to feature a vertical accuracy of 2m (relative) and 10m (absolute), within a horizontal raster of approximately 12x12 square meters, slightly varying depending on the geographic latitude.
Read more about this topic: Terra SAR-X
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that’s my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again ... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense ahistorical.”
—Juliet Mitchell (b. 1940)