Ten years ago, ESA launched one of its most innovative satellites. GOCE spent four years measuring a fundamental force of nature: gravity. This extraordinary mission not only yielded new insights into our gravity field, but ...
Space Exploration
Mar 20, 2019
3
25
GOCE (pronounced go-chay), the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer, was one of ESA's most remarkable missions. Operating in the lowest-ever orbit of any Earth observation satellite, GOCE was on the edge ...
Space Exploration
Aug 30, 2018
0
10
A new ultrastable adhesive identified through ESA research could be a key to assembling rock-solid structures for space, including large telescopes, instruments and antennas to peer deeper into the cosmos or sharpen views ...
Space Exploration
Oct 13, 2014
2
0
Although ESA's GOCE satellite is no more, all of the measurements it gathered during its life skirting the fringes our atmosphere, including the very last as it drifted slowly back to Earth, have been drawn together to offer ...
Space Exploration
Jul 31, 2014
0
0
(Phys.org) —ESA's GOCE satellite has revealed that the devastating Japanese earthquake of 2011 left its mark in Earth's gravity – yet another example of this extraordinary mission surpassing its original scope.
Space Exploration
Dec 4, 2013
5
0
A satellite measuring Earth's gravity since 2009 ran out of fuel Monday and will reenter the atmosphere within three weeks, when it will mostly disintegrate, the European Space Agency said.
Space Exploration
Oct 21, 2013
0
0
A satellite monitoring Earth's gravity field since 2009 will run out of fuel "in the coming days" and eventually crash, with little risk to humans, the European Space Agency said Friday.
Space Exploration
Oct 18, 2013
15
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- After just two years in orbit, ESA's GOCE satellite has gathered enough data to map Earth's gravity with unrivalled precision. Scientists now have access to the most accurate model of the 'geoid' ever produced ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 1, 2011
14
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's GOCE gravity mission has recovered from a glitch that prevented the satellite from sending its flow of scientific data to the ground. News of the recovery comes earlier than expected, thanks to the ...
Space Exploration
Sep 7, 2010
0
0
The first products based on GOCE satellite data are now available online through ESA's Earth observation user services tools. ESA launched the satellite in March 2009 on a mission to map Earth's gravity with unprecedented ...
Space Exploration
Jun 9, 2010
0
0
The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is an ESA satellite that was launched on March 17, 2009. It is a satellite carrying a highly sensitive gravity gradiometer which detects fine density differences in the crust and oceans of the Earth.
GOCE data will have many uses, probing hazardous volcanic regions and bringing new insight into ocean behaviour. The latter, in particular, is a major driver for the mission. By combining the gravity data with information about sea surface height gathered by other satellite altimeters, scientists will be able to track the direction and speed of geostrophic ocean currents. The low orbit and high accuracy of the system will greatly improve the known accuracy and spatial resolution of the geoid (the theoretical surface of equal gravitational potential on the Earth).
The satellite's arrow shape and fins help keep the GOCE stable as it flies through the wisps of air still present at an altitude of 260 km. In addition, an ion propulsion system will continuously compensate for the deceleration of air-drag without the vibration of a conventional chemically-powered rocket engine, thus restoring the path of the craft as closely as possible to a purely inertial trajectory. The craft's primary instrument is three pairs of highly sensitive accelerometers which will measure gravitational gradients in three different axes.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
