ESA SMOS Mission Backgrounder

On Sunday, November 1 at 8:50 p.m. eastern standard time the European Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite will be launched on a Russian Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ESA
• SMOS
• European
• Soil
• Moisture
• and
• Ocean
• Salinity

[dontneed]

At 3.55 min the narrator says that the antenna is "sensitive enough to detect a teaspoon of water in a handfull of dry soil" . Is there a mistake here? Still, it appears to be a worthwhile satellite and a good video. Good luck with the mission!

[usmceflips]

@CollectedVariety LOL ME TOO

[CollectedVariety]

i tried to type in smosh and by accident did smos and got this video

[uggligr]

The most important mission - Mission to Planet Earth. The only place in the known Universe (right now) known to harbor life.

The Megafaunal extinction only 8500 years ago, which took out the Woolly Mammouth, the Giant Ground Sloth, and - of greatest interest to contemporary man, the American PaleoIndian - was thought to have been caused by a change in ocean circulation patterns perhaps caused by salinity changes. This mission addresses that question directly. Awesome, 5*****.  :)