Contract Signed For GOCE Data Analysis And Modelling

GRAVITY SPACE

Artist's impression of GOCE.

Paris, France (ESA) Oct 28, 2004
An important milestone was reached this week in the development of ESA's GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) mission, when a contract, worth ďż˝7.8 million, was signed between ESA and the Institute for Astronomical and Physical Geodesy (IAPG) from the Technical University of Munich.

The contract means that the scientific data resulting from the GOCE mission will be analysed by a consortium of 10 European universities and research institutes led by the IAPG.

The consortium will then use the data to produce an unprecedented high-accuracy and high spatial-resolution global model of the Earth's gravity field and of the geoid.

Scientists from Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and France will all cooperate in this project. The work will be managed by IAPG as prime contractor with the help of the National Institute of Space Research in the Netherlands (SRON).

The ceremony took place at the Technical University in Munich, Germany on 26 October when the contract was signed by Prof. Wolfgang Herrmann the President of the Technical University of Munich and Dr. Volker Liebig ESA's Director of Earth Observation. Subsequently, all the project partners signed their contracts with the prime contractor.

GOCE, due for launch in 2006, is the first Earth Explorer Core mission to be developed as part of ESA's Living Planet Programme. This mission, entirely dedicated to the exploration of the Earth's gravity field, will significantly advance our knowledge in areas of solid-Earth physics, geodesy, oceanography as well as climate-change research.

The primary instrument is the newly developed gravity gradiometer. In order to attain the required sensitivity it is combined with precise GPS tracking, and active drag-free control of the spacecraft.

Because the gravitational signal is stronger closer to the Earth, GOCE has been designed to fly in a particularly low orbit ďż˝ at an altitude of just 250 km. The satellite has no mechanical moving parts since it has to be completely stable and rigid to ensure the acquisition of true gravity readings.

The signing of the contract for the 'GOCE High-Level Processing Facility' ensures that the data acquired by the mission will be expertly translated into valuable information that will further our understanding of the planet.

GRAVITY SPACE

As World Turns It Drags Time And Space With It

Baltimore MD (SPX) Oct 22, 2004
An international team of NASA and university researchers has found the first direct evidence the Earth is dragging space and time around itself as it rotates. The researchers believe they have measured the effect, first predicted in 1918 by using Einstein's theory of general relativity, by precisely observing shifts in the orbits of two Earth-orbiting laser-ranging satellites.

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