January 5, 2015 8:25 AM EST
A new NASA research spacecraft scheduled for a late January launch will employ a “spinning lasso” to measure moisture in the Earth’s soil—from space.
Dubbed the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), the instrument will employ radar, a radiometer and the largest rotating mesh antenna ever deployed in space. The fine mesh antenna dish, which has a diameter of 19.7 feet, transmits microwaves toward Earth that penetrate the soil and then rebound into space.
“We call it the spinning lasso,” Wendy Edelstein of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. The antenna is attached to a mechanical arm on the spacecraft like a cowboy’s rope.
The spacecraft can tell scientists how dramatic droughts will be in large swathes of farmland and help the agriculture industry recover from long dry spells. The SMAP will launch on Jan. 29 and orbit the Earth every three days or less.
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NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi (STScI)—NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi (STScI) The sun emits a significant solar flare on Dec. 19, 2014 as seen from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO/NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on July 3, 2014 "Hurricane #Arthur has grown an eye since we last met." Reid Wiseman—NASA The Elephant's Trunk Nebula, also known as IC 1396 on April 14, 2014. Eric Coles The Holuhraun lava field as seen with infrared imaging captured by the Operational Land Imager on Sept. 6, 2014, NASA Mars is seen in an image taken by the ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft released on Sept. 30, 2014. ISRO/AFP/Getty Images The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-13M space ship carrying the Expedition 40 crew to the International Space Station launches from the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on May 29, 2014. Dmitry Lovetsky—AP Using the CIVA camera on Rosetta’s Philae lander the spacecraft snapped a ‘selfie’ with a passing comet in this photo released on Oct. 14, 2014. Rosetta/Philae/CIVA/ESA Saturn was captured by the Cassini spacecraft cameras in this image released on March 17, 2014. JPL-Caltech/NASA A composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 of the evolving universe is shown in this image released on June 3, 2014. NASA/Reuters Astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on July 1, 2014 "Here is a #TodaySunrise from space for @MLauer" Reid Wiseman—NASA
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