Synonymous Platform Names:
Platform-based Instruments:
Orbit
Orbit Inclination:
82.5 degrees
Period:
104.0 minutes
Perigee:
945.0 km
Apogee:
980.0 km
Related Data Sets
Description
[Source: NASA ILRS,
http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/fiz... ]
Mission Objectives:
Meteor 2-21 is the twenty-first and last in the Meteor-2 series of Russian
... meteorological satellites launched in 1993. The Meteor satellites were designed to monitor atmospheric and sea-surface temperatures, humidity, radiation, sea-ice conditions, snow-cover, and clouds.
What makes Meteor 2-21 distinctive from the other meteorological satellites is its unique retroreflector array. Fizeau is named after a French physicist, Armand Fizeau, who in 1851 conducted an experiment which tested for the aether convection coefficient. SLR tracking of this satellite was used for precise orbit determination and the Experiment of Fizeau. The Fizeau Experiment tests the theory of special relativity-that distance events that are simultaneous for one observer will not be simultaneous for an observer in motion relative to the first.
Mission Instrumentation:
Meteor-2-21/Fizeau had the following instrumentation onboard:
1. Scanning telephotometer
2. Scanning infrared radiometers
3. Radiation measurement complex
4. Retroreflector array
Additional information available at:
http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/fiz...
Online Resource:
Platform Logistics:
Design Life:
2 years
Launch Date:
1993-05-31
Launch Site:
Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
Primary Sponsors:
Russia