{"id":27451,"date":"2023-01-04T03:57:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T03:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/04\/new-nasa-video-shows-swot-satellite-deploying-enormous-scanning-antennas\/"},"modified":"2023-01-04T03:57:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T03:57:18","slug":"new-nasa-video-shows-swot-satellite-deploying-enormous-scanning-antennas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/04\/new-nasa-video-shows-swot-satellite-deploying-enormous-scanning-antennas\/","title":{"rendered":"New NASA Video Shows SWOT Satellite Deploying Enormous Scanning Antennas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last month, NASA\u2019s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite headed into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Once fully online, the spacecraft will provide height measurements of Earth\u2019s surface water with unprecedented detail. Before it can do that, SWOT needed to deploy the massive antenna arrays that allow it to make those precision measurements. NASA says the initial deployment has gone perfectly, and it just so happens SWOT has some cameras so you can watch a replay. The deployment took days, but luckily, you can watch it at a vastly accelerated rate.<\/p>\n

SWOT launched on Dec. 16 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. After reaching orbit, the satellite needed to unfurl into its final form. As with most satellites, there were solar panels to extend, but this only took about 10 minutes. The bigger job was getting the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument deployed. SWOT will use this tool to measure water levels across 90% of the globe<\/a> \u2014 if something were to go wrong with KaRIn, the mission would be in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

The team carefully monitored KaRIn during deployment, which took a whopping four days. They relied on telemetry data, as well as images from the spacecraft\u2019s four cameras. These are not scientific instruments \u2014 JPL engineers modified commercial-grade cameras and affixed them to the hull in order to record the solar panels and KaRIn antenna deployment. And that\u2019s why we have this nifty record of the satellite\u2019s boom arms extending.<\/p>\n