ATS-3: Difference between revisions

| name = ATS-3, Advanced =Tech. Sat. 3, ATS-3C, 03029

| image = Applications Technology Satellite 3 (ATS 3).png
| image_caption = ATS-3 prelaunch

| operator website = [[NASA]]

| website COSPAR_ID = 1967-111A

| COSPAR_IDSATCAT = 1967-111A3029

| spacecraft_bus manufacturer = [[HS-306Hughes Aircraft|Hughes]]

| manufacturerdry_mass = [[Hughes= Aircraft|Hughes]]

| dry_mass launch_mass = {{convert|365.0|kg|lb}}

| launch_mass dimensions = {{convert|365.0|kg|lb}}

| dimensionspower = <!-- [[watt]]s -->

| launch_contractordisposal_type =

| disposal_type deactivated = {{end-date|2001}}

| orbit_referenceorbit_regime = [[geocentricGeosynchronous orbit|GeocentricGSO]]

| orbit_semimajor orbit_periapsis = {{convert|42241.035723|km|mi|sp=us}}

| orbit_periapsis orbit_apoapsis = {{convert|3572335862|km|mi|sp=us}}

| orbit_inclinationorbit_period = 623.9293&nbsp;degreeshours

| orbit_periodapsis = 23.93&nbsp;hoursgee

| apsisprogramme = [[Applications Technology = geeSatellites]]

Launched in November 1967, the ATS-3 was in service for 11 years before finally being decommissioned in 1978 along with [[ATS-1]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://science.nasa.gov/missions/ats|title=Applications Technology Satellite Program}}</ref> Among its widest-known achievements are the first full-disk, "true color"<ref name="Miller Schmit Seaman Lindsey pp. 1803–1816">{{cite journal | last1=Miller | first1=Steven D. | last2=Schmit | first2=Timothy L. | last3=Seaman | first3=Curtis J. | last4=Lindsey | first4=Daniel T. | last5=Gunshor | first5=Mathew M. | last6=Kohrs | first6=Richard A. | last7=Sumida | first7=Yasuhiko | last8=Hillger | first8=Donald | title=A Sight for Sore Eyes: The Return of True Color to Geostationary Satellites | journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society | publisher=American Meteorological Society | volume=97 | issue=10 | date=Oct 1, 2016 | issn=0003-0007 | doi=10.1175/bams-d-15-00154.1 | pages=1803–1816| bibcode=2016BAMS...97.1803M | s2cid=51994278 | doi-access=free }}</ref> composite Earth image ([[DODGE]] took color-filtered black-and-white images, put together they produced the very first color image of the full-disk).<ref name="Geography Realm 2019">{{cite web | title=The First Color Images of the Earth from Space | website=Geography Realm | date=Mar 13, 2019 | url=https://www.geographyrealm.com/the-first-color-images-of-the-earth-from-space/ | access-date=Feb 2, 2022}}</ref> Its imaging capability has served during disaster situations, from the [[Mexico]] earthquake to the [[Mount St. Helens]] eruption.<ref name=NASA />

ATS-3 experiments included [[VHF]] and [[C band (IEEE)|C-band]] communications, a color spin-scan camera<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experiment/display.action?id=1967-111A-01|title=NASA – NSSDC – Experiment – Details – Multicolor Spin-Scan Cloudcover Camera (MSSCC)|publisher=[[NASA]]|access-date=17 November 2012}}</ref> (principally developed by [[Verner E. Suomi]]), an [[image dissector]] camera, a mechanically despun antenna, [[resistojet]] thrusters, [[hydrazine]] [[propulsion]], optical surface experiments, and the measurement of the electron content of the [[ionosphere]] and [[magnetosphere]].

Circa 1970, ATS-3 was used to collect images of weather patterns, especially developing hurricanes in the [[Western Hemisphere]]. 1,200 line photos were downlinked, approximately every 25 minutes, during daylight hours to NOAA's Command and Data Acquisition Station at [[Wallops Flight Facility|Wallops Station]], Virginia and transferred to various users. The satellite was known for its spinning beam antennas locking up and rotating with the satellite. When that happened, it took a powerful ground-based transmitter, like the one at [[Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex|Mojave]], to blast through digital instructions to get the antenna aimed back at earthEarth again.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}

{{Portal|Spaceflight}}{{Commons category|ATS-3}}