Home

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

picture of Glory spacecraft

Monday, May 11, 2009 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Bryan Fafaul, Steve Pszcolka, & John Satrom

"The Glory Mission"

ABSTRACT -- Understanding the Earth's energy balance and the effect on climate requires measuring black carbon soot and other aerosols, and the total solar irradiance. Glory is a low Earth orbit (LEO) scientific research satellite designed to collect data on the properties of aerosols and black carbon in the Earth's atmosphere. Glory will also collect data on solar irradiance for the long-term effects on the Earth climate record.

The Glory mission's scientific objectives are met by implementing two separate science instruments, one with the ability to collect polarimetric measurements along the satellite ground track within the solar reflective spectral region (0.4 to 2.4 micrometers) and one with the ability to monitor changes in sunlight incident on the Earth's atmosphere by collecting high accuracy, high precision measurements of total solar irradiance. Glory accomplishes these objectives by deploying two instruments aboard a low Earth orbit satellite, the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) and the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM). Additionally, a cloud camera system will provide images that allow the APS scans along the spacecraft ground track to be put into spatial context and to facilitate determination of cloud occurrence within the APS instantaneous field of view. This talk will give an overview of the spacecraft, the scientific instruments, and some of the development challenges of the mission.

SPEAKERS -- Bryan Fafaul has worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center for more than 22 years in a wide variety of technical and management positions. Bryan started his career in Electrical, Electronic, and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts Branch and quickly moved into project . He served as the Mission Manager for the Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Instrument Systems Manager for Servicing Mission 3A and 3B, the Deputy Project Manager for The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP), prior to his current position as the Glory Project Manager.

Steve Pszcolka has worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for more than 20 years in various technical and management positions. Steve started his career at GSFC in the Electrical, Electronic, and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts Branch. He has served as the Deputy Observatory Manager for the Global GeoSpace (GGS) Polar Spacecraft, as well as the Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) Spacecraft Subsystem Manager / COTR for the Solid State Recorder (SSR) & Digital Tape Recorders (DTR) launched on NOAA-K. Steve was the Instrument Manager / COTR for the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) launched on NOAA-L as well as the Observatory Manager for NOAA-M, NOAA-N and NOAA N-Prime, prior to his current position as the Glory Deputy Project Manager.

John Satrom has worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) since 2005 and has 25 years experience in satellite and launch vehicle engineering and project management. John started his career in the U.S. Air Force supporting missile systems testing and integration of national security payloads on the Space Shuttle. He has worked for General Dynamics on the Atlas launch vehicle program and Space Systems/Loral supporting the integration, test and launch of commercial telecommunications satellites. Prior to coming to GSFC, John was the General Manager of Astrotech Space Operations. He is supporting the Glory Project as the Deputy Mission Systems Engineer.


Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov