[GLIMS] Good news: Terra/ASTER, mission extension, memory recovery

[Jeffrey Kargel]

Dear GLIMS colleagues,
Over the years Terra lost most use of its memory boards. The problem reached crisis last year, with major reallocations of reduced remaining available memory. Engineers performed a potentially perilous reset, and all the memory boards have regained functionality. In terms of solid state memory (and numbers of images that can be recorded and downlinked), ASTER and Terra are as good as at launch.
Terra has begun drifting out of its two-decades-long orbit, which affects time of acquisition of images. This drift will gradually continue, so ASTER will increasingly behave differently in terms of image acquisitions. Terra and ASTER are funded through what had been contemplated as end of mission in 2023. There is some news (news to me at least), that the Terra team will be asked to recompete in 2023 for another three years of operations. So don't count ASTER out!
--Jeff Kargel

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