TIROS OPERATIONAL SATELLITE (TOS) FACT SIHET

General

fTie technology learned fIl the TIROS program, which

hr- Cored eight successes in as many attempts, has led
NASA to develop the new "cartwheel" '2IROS which is sched-
:ld for its initial research and development flight late
thiis year.
This configuration will be used by the Weather Bureau
fo.. th3 TIROS Operational Satellite system to provide daily
global weather coverage of the entire world.
T2he "cartwheel" satellite differs from the earlier TIROS
in that the spacecraft rolls on its sides much like a large
wheel. Cameras are placed to view from the side of the space-
lraft rather than from the bottom, so they view the Earth
once in each revolution.
Meteorological coverage of the world using the wheel
spacecraft, will increase the current coverage of about 20
percent to near complete daily coverage. This increase in
coverage is due to a combination of the cartwheel configura-
ti(,-L and an orbit which is near polar and sun-synchronous.
(TIMe satellite is always in proper position with respect to
the sun).
TOS Spacecraft

The TOS spacecraft will be an 18-sided right polyhedron,

223- inches high and 42 inches in diameter, weighing about
300 pornds. The structure will consist of a reinforced base-
plate and a cover assembly. Four transmitting antennas will
project from the cover assembly.
Television cameras will be mounted to view from the side
of the satellite. The electronics subsystems, Which will be
mouilte(' on the baseplate, will include two tape recorders,
power supply and regulator, beacon transmitters, horizon
sensor and associated circuitry, command receivers, digital
clocks and control circuitry, telemetry sensors, quarter-
orbit magnetic attitude control, and dynamics controllers
programmers.
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Camera Subsystems (
The TOS spacecraft will hc designed to handle two
different camera systems. one of the designs will be for
two Automatic Picture Tral.lttsion Cameras.
The AVCS consists of a oiic inch vidicon camera pointed
straight at Earth. It is an R)OO-line camera compared to the
500-line cameras carried in earlier TIROS.
This camera will be capable of operating in two modes,
a storage mode for picture taking over remote areas and a
direct readout mode for taking pictures when the spacecraft
is within range of a Command and Data Acquisition station.
Resolution for the AVCS is approximately one mile at the
center of the picture.
Instant piotares from the TOS spacecraft will be pro-
vided by the apt camera which uses the slow scan principle
similar to that used to send radio photographs.
Each AP" ground station can receive up to three pictures
each time the spacecraft passes overhead. An APT picture
cycle takes 208 seconds. The first eight seconds consists
(e the prepare, expose and develop cycle and the remaining
200 seconds is used to read out the photographs on a paper
facsimile machine at a scan rate of four lines per second,
The APT camera has already been flight tested with a
standard TIROS configuration onthe TIROS VIII which was
launched in December of 1963.

Infrared Equipment

It is planned to install heat-balance infrared systems,

similar to those flown on previous TIROS missions, on some
of the future TOS spacecraft. These infrared subsystems
will measure heat emitted from clouds and the Earth during
nighttime orbits when pictures cannot be taken.
Data transmissions of infrared data will be made by
transmitters already planned for the TOS spacecraft.
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The specific configuration of the typl- of infrared

sjstem to be carried in TOS spacecraft is titider study.

Project Goals

The objectives of the TOS system are as follows:

Obtain cloud picture coverage of the entire sunlit

portion of the Earth at least once a day on a regular
and continuing basis;

Obtain data at Command and Data Acquisition stations

with a delay of no more than two orbits;

Relay data to a central location for analysis and use;

Provide APT pictures to local users on a global basis

at least once daily.