Television Infrared Observation Satellite

TIROS, or Television Infrared Observation Satellite, was a series of early weather satellites launched by NASA, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. The program was extremely successful in proving the usefulness of satellite weather observation and in its time, perhaps considered to be too successful; causing people to question the need for many of the military spy apparatus that were in development or use at the time. TIROS demonstrated at that time that "the key to genius is often simplicity." [http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/03/15/how-tiros-photographs-the-world-including-russia/?Qwd=./ScienceAndMechanics/8-1960/tiros&Qif=tiros_1.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig]

The 270 lb satellite was launched into orbit by a Thor Able rocket. Drum shaped with a 42 inch diameter, and height of 19 inches, the TIROS satellite carried two 6 inch long television cameras with it as it entered its geostationary orbit. One of the cameras had a wide-angle lens with an "f"/1.6 (focal length) that could view 800 miles of the earth. The other camera had a telephoto lens with an "f"/1.8 and had a 10 to 12 power telephoto effect over the wide angle camera.

The satellite itself was stabilized in its orbit by spinning like a gyroscope. When it first separated from the rockets third stage, it was spinning at about 136 revolutions per minute (rpm). To take unblurred photographs, a de-spin mechanism slowed the satellite down to 12 rpm after the orbit was accomplished.

The camera shutters made possible the series of still pictures which were stored and transmitted back to earth via 2-watt FM transmitters as the satellite approached one of its ground command points. After transmission, the tape was erased or cleaned and readied for more recording.

TIROS continued as the ESSA TIROS Operational System, and was eventually succeeded by the NOAA ITOS (Improved TIROS Operational System), or TIROS-M, and then by the TIROS-N and Advanced TIROS-N series of satellites. The naming of the satellite becomes a little confusing because the satellites share the same name as the over-seeing organization, such as ESSA & .

Participants in this satellite project included the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Army Signal Research and Development Lab, Radio Corporation of America, the United States Weather Bureau, and the United States Naval Photographic Interpretation Center [http://www.met.fsu.edu/explores/Guide/Tiros_Html/tiros1.html] .

*TIROS-1 (A)- launched April 1, 1960, suffered electrical system failure on June 15 1960
*TIROS-2 (B)- launched November 23, 1960, failed January 22, 1961
*TIROS-3 (C)- launched July 12 1961, deactivated February 28, 1962
*TIROS-4 (D)- launched February 8 1962, failed on June 30 1962 (both cameras failed earlier)
*TIROS-5 (E)- launched June 19 1962, failed on May 13, 1963
*TIROS-6 (F)- launched September 18 1962, failed October 21 1963
*TIROS-7 (G)- launched June 19 1963, deactivated June 3, 1968
*TIROS-8 (H)- launched December 21 1963, deactivated July 1, 1967
*TIROS-9 (I)- launched January 1, 1965, failed February 15 1967. First Tiros satellite in near-polar orbit
*TIROS-10 (OT-1)- launched July 2 1965, deactivated July 31, 1966TIROS Operational System
*ESSA-1 (OT-3)
*ESSA-2 (OT-2)
*ESSA-3 (TOS-A)
*ESSA-4 (TOS-B)
*ESSA-5 (TOS-C)
*ESSA-6 (TOS-D)
*ESSA-7 (TOS-E)
*ESSA-8 (TOS-F)
*ESSA-9 (TOS-G)ITOS/TIROS-M
*TIROS-M (ITOS-1)
*NOAA-1 (ITOS-A)
*ITOS-B
*ITOS-C
*NOAA-2 (ITOS-D)
*ITOS-E
*NOAA-3 (ITOS-F)
*NOAA-4 (ITOS-G)
*NOAA-5 (ITOS-H)TIROS-N
*TIROS-N
*NOAA-6 (A)
*NOAA-B
*NOAA-7 (C)Advanced TIROS-N
*NOAA-8 (E)
*NOAA-9 (F)
*NOAA-10 (G)
*NOAA-11 (H)
*NOAA-12 (D)
*NOAA-13 (I)
*NOAA-14 (J)
*NOAA-15 (K)
*NOAA-16 (L)
*NOAA-17 (M)
*NOAA-18 (N)
*NOAA-N' (launch no earlier that January 27 2009)

ee also

External links

* [http://www.earth.nasa.gov/history/tiros/tiros.html NASA page on TIROS]
* [http://www.earth.nasa.gov/history/essa/essa.html NASA page on ESSA]
* [http://www.earth.nasa.gov/history/noaa/noaa.html NASA page on ITOS and NOAA]
* [http://www.earth.nasa.gov/history/tiros/tirosn.html NASA page on TIROS-N]
* [http://goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov/poes/index.html NASA Goddard GOES POES Program - POES Home]
* [http://www.oso.noaa.gov/poes/index.htm NOAA Office of Satellite Operations - POES]
* [http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/03/15/how-tiros-photographs-the-world-including-russia/ Modern Mechanix: How Tiros Photographs the World]
* [http://centaur.sstl.co.uk/SSHP/mini/mini60s.html Small Satellites Homepage]