The Cat In The Hat and I are the same age. And today is the birthday of the author, Dr. Seuss.
I have more than a few people to thank for giving me the gift of reading and Dr. Seuss is one of them. But words aren’t the only joy a young reader takes from reading his books; his wonderful illustrations and fantastic characters bring you back again and again.
Tags: Comics
History, Kids, News | Jeff Bucchino | 
March 2, 2010 12:00 pm | 
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The ESSA-1 satellite provided cloud-cover photography to the US’s National Meteorological Center for the purpose of preparing operational weather analysis and forecasts. The spacecraft was designed and configured exactly the same as NIMBUS-1. The total weight of the spacecraft was 912 pounds. The spacecraft was an 18-sided polygon, 42 inches in diameter, 22 inches high and weighed 305 pounds. The craft was made of aluminum alloy and stainless steel then covered with 9100 solar cells. The solar cells served to charge the 63 nickel-cadmium batteries.
The two cameras were mounted 180-degrees opposite each other along the side of the cylindrical craft. The “cartwheel” configuration of the TIROS 9 was selected as the orbital configuration of the operational series of ESSA satellites. Therefore, a camera could be pointed at some point on Earth every time the satellite rotated along its axis. The spacecraft operating system was the same as on the TIROS 9. The craft was placed in its planned Sun-synchronous 98-degree inclination retrograde orbit. The satellite spin axis was rotated using the magnetic attitude control system into an alignment perpendicular to the orbital plane and tangent to the Earth’s surface. ESSA-1 was able to view the weather of each area of the globe, photographing a given area at the exact same local time each day.
Tags: Space
Flying, History | Jeff Bucchino | February 3, 2010 12:08 pm | Comments (1)
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