1. Landsat 8 The Landsat Data Continuity Mission
LDCM SRR/MDR/PNAR April 2008
Landsat 8 The Landsat Data Continuity Mission
Western States ET Workshop
Boise, Idaho
October 22, 2012
Jim Irons
LDCM Project Scientist
Earth Sciences Division
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland

2. Enabling 40 Years of Global Land Surface Observations
Landsat History
Enabling 40 Years of Global Land Surface Observations

3. NASA leads development and launch of satellite observatory
NASA / USGS Parnership
NASA leads development and launch of satellite observatory
Spacecraft
Two-instrument payload
Operational Land Imager – OLI
Thermal Infrared Sensor – TIRS
USGS leads ground system development and post-launch operations
Mission Operations Center – MOC
Ground Network Element – GNE
Data Processing and Archive System (DPAS)

4. Project Status
Courtesy of Orbital

5. Landsat 8 on schedule for February 11 launch date
Atlas V 401 launch vehicle selected by NASA Kennedy Space Center
Contract with United Launch Alliance (ULA)
Kickoff meeting held in October 2010
Launch will be from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), California

6. LDCM Atlas V Lower Stage
ULA Facility, Decatur, Alabama

7. Upper and Lower Stages Now at VAFB
Lower stage arrived via Antonov AN-124 aircraft flight on August 27
Upper stage Centaur arrived September 14 via truck

8. Integrated Satellite Observatory

9. Observatory Testing at Orbital
The observatory is in the final phases of testing at the Orbital Science Corp. facility in Gilbert, Arizona
Successfully completed electromagnetic interference / electromagnetic compatibility (EMI/EMC) in August
Successfully completed dynamics testing (acoustics and vibration) in September
The final phase of testing, thermal vacuum (T/Vac) began Saturday, October 20
Shipment to VAFB scheduled for December
EMI/EMC Test Chamber at Orbital

10. Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)
TIRS built in-house at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
TIRS was officially added to the scope of the mission in December 2009
Critical Design Review held April 2010
Fully assembled & tested TIRS shipped to Orbital on February 08, 2012
TIRS was not added to the payload until western states water managers,
with organization by the Western States Water Council, advocated for
restoration of Landsat thermal imaging requirements 10

11. Fully Assembled TIRS Instrument description
Two spectral bands at 10.8 and 12 micrometers
100 m spatial resolution
Pushbroom LWIR sensor
Four-lens telescope
FPA consisting of three 2-dimensional Quantum Well Infrared Photodector (QWIP) sensor chip assemblies
Mechanically cooled focal plane; BATC provided cryo cooler
300K < 0.4
Mass: 240 Kg
Operational Power: 380 W
Size: 80 cm x 76 cm x 43 cm (with earth shield deployed)

12. TIRS and ETM+ Spectral Bands
L7 ETM+ Thermal Band
LDCM TIRS Band Requirements
Band 6
60 m LWIR
100 m LWIR – 11.30
Band 10
100 m LWIR – 12.50
Band 11

13. Operational Land Imager (OLI)
OLI built by Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. (BATC) of Boulder, CO
Contract awarded in July 2007
Critical design review held October, 2008
Fully assembled & tested OLI shipped to spacecraft vendor on
October 02, 2011

14. Fully Assembled OLI Instrument description
8 VIS/NIR/SWIR bands w/ 30 m spatial resolutions
one panchromatic band w/ 15 m resolution
Pushbroom sensor
Four-mirror telescope with front aperture stop
Focal Plane Assembly (FPA) consisting of 14 sensor chip assemblies, passively cooled
Absolute radiometric accuracy < 5%
Mass: 450Kg
Operational Power: 160 W
Size: 1.8 m x 2 m x 1 8 m

15. OLI Spectral Bands

16. Top Level Mission Ops Concept - Continuity
Fly Landsat 8 in legacy orbit (705 km, near-polar, sun-synchronous)
Ground tracks maintained along heritage WRS-2 paths with 10:00 a.m. equatorial crossing time & 16 day repeat period
Collect image data for multiple spectral bands (Vis/NIR/SWIR/TIR) across 185 km swath along each path
Provide coverage of global land mass each season by scheduling the collection of 400 WRS-2 scenes per day
Maintain rigorous calibration
Archive data and distribute data products
Provide nondiscriminatory access to general public, generate Level 1 data products, distribute data products at no cost upon request
Direct broadcast of data to network of international ground stations having memoranda-of-understanding with USGS

17. Take-Away Messages Landsat 8 launch date is February 11, 2013
Nominal operations begin 90 days after launch
OLI and TIRS will provide the best Landsat data in the proud, 40 year history of the program
TIRS would not be on the satellite without the support of western states water managers
USGS EROS will distribute Landsat 8 data products for free
Continues current Landsat data policy 17

18. http://www.facebook.com/NASA.Landsat Twitter Site
Web Sites
FaceBook Page
Twitter Site

19. Back Up

20. February 11, 2013

21. Polar Orbits for Global Views

22. Urgency Landsat 7 - 7 years beyond design life
Gyro 3 Failure (Shut down May 5, 2004)
Working additional improvements for software gyro
Other Spacecraft Issues (non-critical)
Solid State Recorder – 4 memory boards
Electrical Power Subsystem – shunt #14 and shunt #6
Fuel Line Thermostat
Scan Line Corrector Failure (May 31, 2003)
Bumper Mode Operations (April 1, 2007)
Landsat years beyond design life
Launched in 1984 with three year design life
Operations suspend in November, 2011
LDCM - launch February, 2013
Five year design life (through 2017)
A launch failure would virtually guarantee a multi-year data gap

23. ETM+ SLC Failure Impact
Note that the images show partial scenes, from the western edge through the scene center.

24. LDCM Spacecraft
Spacecraft contract awarded to General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) in April, 2008
GDAIS sold to Orbital Sciences Corporation in April 2010
Space craft will accommodate OLI and TIRS
Provides pointing, power, data capacity, etc. to support LDCM operations
Orbital Sciences Corporation is integrating OLI and TIRS onto the spacecraft at their Gilbert, AZ facility and will ship the observatory to the launch site in Autumn 2012

25. Ground System Operational Architecture