In conjunction with the SMAP launch, NASA held a NASA Social, that brought together mission scientists and engineers with an audience of 70 students, educators, social media managers, bloggers, photographers and videographers who were selected from a pool of 325 applicants from 45 countries.
Speakers for this event included:
Jared Entin (@NASA, @EarthVitalSigns)
NASA Program Scientist for SMAP
SMAP Science
Dara Entekhabi (@MIT), Science Team Lead
Randy Koster (@NASAGoddard)
Wade Crow (@USDA)
Susan Moran (@USDA)
SMAP Launch
Col. Marc Del Rosario (@30thSpaceWing)
Commander, 30th Space Wing Operations
Group, VAFB
Mic Woltman (@NASA_LSP)
Engineer, NASA Launch Services Program
CubeSats
Dave Rider, GRIFEX (@NASAJPL)
Dave Klumpar, FIREBIRD (@MontanaState)
John Bellardo, EXOCUBE (@CalPoly)
The launch of NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 29. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 2 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is targeted for 6:20:42 a.m. PST (9:20:42 a.m. EST) at the opening of a three-minute launch window. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available on the Western Range on Jan. 30 with the same launch window.
SMAP is the first U.S. Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. High-resolution space-based measurements of soil moisture and whether the soil is frozen or thawed will give scientists a new capability to better predict natural hazards of extreme weather, climate change, floods and droughts, and will help reduce uncertainties in our understanding of Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.
The mission will provide the most accurate and highest-resolution maps of soil moisture ever obtained, mapping the globe every two to three days from space for a least three years. The spacecraft's final circular polar orbit will be 426 miles (685 kilometers) at an inclination of 98.1 degrees. The spacecraft will orbit Earth once every 98.5 minutes and will repeat the same ground track every eight days.
Fixing Voyager: How NASA Restored Communications with Voyager 1 from Across the Solar System
After more than four and a half decades exploring our solar system and beyond, Voyager 1 has had a challenging year. In November 2023, the spacecraft suddenly and unexpectedly stopped sending scientific and engineering data back to Earth, beginning a months-long process to diagnose and problem-solve with a spacecraft billions of miles away and built on systems designed in the 1970s.
Join us for a live talk to learn how the Voyager team at JPL – both current and retired – used an impressive combination of modern and past resources, detective work, trial and error, and decades of experience to solve the problem.
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft ever to operate outside the heliosphere and continue to provide valuable scientific data from interstellar space.
Speakers:
Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager, NASA JPL
Dr. Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist, NASA JPL
Host:
Gregory Smith, communications and education directorate, NASA JPL
Co-host:
Calla Cofield, Media Relations Specialist, NASA JPL