SP -- EARTH OBSERVING SATELLITE (TRIANA) Request For Information This is a request for information (RFI) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from the U.S. educational community in support of a unique Earth Observing Satellite. The concept has been proposed and named TRIANA by the Vice President of the United States, the Honorable Albert Gore, as a unique Earth Observing Post at the Solar L-1 orbit one million miles (i.e. about one and one-half million kilometers) away from Earth. This unique vantage point allows the sunlit portion of Earth s disc to be viewed constantly by a three color (red, blue, green) camera at a spatial resolution of 7x7 km (approximately 5x5 miles). The other unique feature of the proposed orbit is that the Earth and Sun s gravity fields are approximately equal, providing a relatively stable orbit for maintaining the satellite. NASA is seeking feedback from the educational community, industry and domestic and foreign universities in three areas: educational opportunities; scientific applications;and commercial opportunities. The prime objective of the mission is to provide a "real time" image of the full sunlit disk of the Earth for educational outreach opportunities. We envision engagement of high school and university students in all phases of the mission, from design through operations and data analysis. Images from the satellite would be available through an Internet World Wide Web site to be maintained and updated by the educational community. Second, observations provided by the envisioned mission could potentially be used for the areas of meteorology and environmental monitoring as a complement to the existing/planned environmental monitoring missions by NASA, the U.S. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and other agencies/nations. Third, the commercial potential of the envisioned mission are: 1) building, launching and operating the satellite; and 2) developing and marketing products and/or value added services that take advantage of spatial and temporal resolutions of observations. The mission characteristics for TRIANA satellite/sensor system have been defined as: HDTV quality, full color image of the full sunlit disk of the Earth at 7x7 Km and updated every several minutes Image data available over the Internet Student involvement in all phases of the project Build and launch two years or less from the time of selection Five year lifetime Solar L-1 orbit at one million miles distance from Earth NASA has performed a preliminary feasibility study to determine baseline mission characteristics. A baseline spacecraft and instrument concept was developed which consists of a 20-cm diameter aperture telescope and a 3-color, 8-bit, 2048-pixel CCD camera with a 0.7 degree field of view. This system provides full, three color images of the Earth with 7 km resolution. The payload is carried on a small (<100kg), spacecraft. A three axis stabilized ACS system must provide absolute pointing to <10 arcmin accuracy and stability of <0.2 pixel over 10 msec (CCD integration time). The satellitecarries a 1-meter X-band antenna and is capable of downlinking data at 200 Kbits/sec; it will require approximately 3 minutes to send a full image. Three 3-meter X-band ground stations are required to receive data. The satellite would operate an ambient temperature. The satellite is carried into orbit as a secondary payload on an expendable launch vehicle or from the Shuttle payload bay. Both options require a upper-state to place it into L-1 orbit. A STAR 30 motor is required for the Shuttle option. Additional technical information can be found in the attached NASA fact sheet. NASA is soliciting two types of information: First, educational, scientific or commercial applications beyond those identified above. Prospective respondents should provide sufficient details to enable identification and/or characterizations of engineering design features supporting such applications. Second, potential partnership(s) and/or sponsorship arrangements by academia, industry, foundations or other organizations within the U.S. International partnerships are also welcomed. NASA is seeking innovative partnerships leading to the shortest development cycle, lowest cost and maximum dissemination of TRIANA observations on a timely basis. Such arrangements may include, but are not limited to, academic, government and industrial partnerships. Prospective information providers should follow the suggested format below to respond to this RFI no later 4:00 pm EDT Friday, May 1, 1998. NASA will use the information provided in response to this RFI to define its strategy for realizing this exciting educational project in a timely fashion. NASA does not intend to award a contract or grant on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise pay for the information solicited. Your response will be treated as information only. Responses should be sent via e-mail to: oesresponse@hq.nasa.gov . Point of Contact at NASA: Mr. Greg Williams, Code YM, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, (202) 358-0241, gwilliam@hq.nasa.gov RFI Response Format 1. Name, addressand affiliation of respondent(s): 2. Intended application (s): describe briefly plans for using TRIANA observations in:a. Education; b. Science; c. Commercial Value-added services/product(s);d. Other. 3. Level/type of participation/sponsorship: a. Sponsor (i.e. cost share); please indicate level of contribution b. Partner: Provide hardware, software, facilities, launch, etc:please describe briefly c. Full-System Provider: may include the end-to-end system with provision of marketing the observations for identified applications. Please indicate, expected contributions by NASA and/or other identified partners. 4. System design parameters, if different from those given above. 5. Delivery schedule or other time tables, as applicable. 6. Other information/provisions. NASA Facts, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington DC 20546, (202) 358-1600********CONCEPT FOR EARTH-VIEWING SATELLITE****General Objective: Demonstrate the innovative use of a small satellite to provide a constantly Sun-lit, full-disk view of the Earth from space as a natural beacon for environmental awareness and science education in the 21st century Mission Profile 7 Approx. 330-lb., 175 Watt small satellite (smallsat) based on proven design 7 Launched into the Lagrangian point ("L-1"), balanced gravitationally between the Sun and the Earth, about one million miles from Earth [about 1/100th of the distance to the Sun; four times the Earth-Moon distance] 7 Three simple, low-cost ground stations spaced equally around the globe to provide continuous downlink capability 7 One new image downlinked every few minutes 7 Planned five-year operational mission 7 Developed and launched in less than two years from competitive selection 7 Total mission cost less than $50 million, including launch and operations 7 Free worldwide, 24-hour access to the updated image via the Internet Basic Payload 7 Eight-inch diameter telescope paired with a full-color camera with 2000x2000 pixel digital detector capable of providing better resolution than a High Definition-TV image 7 Solar panels for electrical power 7 X-band radio for communications 7 Hydrazine propellant, star tracker, gyros, and reaction wheels for attitude control Potential Users 7 General Public 7 Educators 7 Students 7 Non-profit Groups 7 Weather Forecasters WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice, http://nais.nasa.gov/EPS/HQ/date.html#98-0001. E-MAIL: Gregory J. Williams, gwilliam@hq.nasa.gov.

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