MACHTRES   SAT's

For NASA the SAC-D will be an argentine pride.

It will be launched in 2006 and will cost more than 200 million dollars.

One of its devices will measure for the first time the salt in the oceans and will detect the changes in the climate in the planet.

This is afirmed by Alphonso Diaz, phisicscientist and director of the Goddard Space Flight Center, belonging to NASA. Diaz and other four members of NASA arrived to the country for agree all the technical details of the mission SAC-D/Aquarius, wich will be launched in 2006.

The SAC-D satellite will be built by CONAE (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales) National Space Activity Comission, who will at the same time contract the Río Negro state company INVAP  with its plant located in Bariloche. The device will also be used as "container" for different measure instruments.

Among the instruments it will carry aboard the Aquarius instrument which will be built by NASA plus a camera designed by the argentine agency and which will work with four infrared channels.

From its orbiting the satellite will allow to measure from space for the first time the salt in the oceans . "This task has only been carriedout up to now a dats from ships" said Chester Koblinsky, main person in charge of research of the mission on the party of NASA. This person works at Greenbelt, Maryland.

The change to "the satellite eye will be an advantage for research of oceans" stated phisicscientist and engineer Amit Sen who is part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California. "With continuous measurements we will be able to have a map of the salt in the oceans - steseed Sen and this have more knowledge to study the planet's climate changes, a problem that is environmental but that affects the economy".

Orbiting the planet, the salt in the oceans will not be the only parameter to measure. Information will also be gathened concerning the ice in polar areas, the soil wetness, fire spots and the sea water temperature, being an important information for the fishing activity.

The SAC-D will be a satellite of the optical type, as is the SAC-C which since 2000 is working in space and offers important information for 200 university projects and research centers that are using its images.

Buenos Aires, Sep 2002

SOURCE :  CLARÍN  -  BUENOS AIRES