ALBERT

Description: The small satellite mission CHAMP was initiated and is primarily funded by the German Space Agency (DARA) as a lead project for the East German space industry. It is defined in its main mission goals by researchers of the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), and is conducted under lead of GFZ in cooperation with the German Aerospace Establishment (DLR) and the industry . After completion of an initial feasibility study (Phase A) and of the project's definition/specification phase (Phase B), followed by a two months redesign phase (Phase ~B), CHAMP is supposed to enter into Phase C/D in late 1996. CHAMP as a geoscientific mission with a multi-purpose and complementary payload shall substantially contribute to one of the basic research objectives of studies of planet Earth, that is, to the determination of the composition, structure, and dynamics of the solid planet, its oceans and atmosphere, and its surrounding envelope of charged particles and fields. CHAMP being one element in a timely sequence of Earth observations and platforms, satellites, and mini-satellites could be a contributor to the acquisition of global, synoptic and long-term measurements of global processes through space and ground instrumentation . CHAMP shall fulfil the criteria of a small satellite mission, i.e., only a few years of development time through the usage of existing sensors and commercial spacecraft subsystem components, and reduced costs through protoflight approach, reduced quality standards and test efforts. The most challenging parts of the CHAMP mission are the variety of payload components especially the accelerometer and the magnetometers, each one with demanding environmental requirements. It is designed to observe both the gravitational as well as the magnetic potential from one platform in order to get a complementary scientific payback. The GPS-receiver on-board CHAMP being employed for gravity field recovery, simultaneously will perform atmosphere and ionosphere profiling by Earth limb sounding. It is also for the first time a three-axes accelerometer will be flown to measure with a required accuracy of 10^8m/s2 the non-gravitational forces, e.g. air drag, perturbing the satellite's motion.

Description: This technical report has been initiated, compiled and edited until March 1994. Its objective was to collect the existing geoscientific database and state of the art on the Uralides. It serves as a platform for financial and operational decisions by national and international funding agencies on the URSEIS95-project (Urals Reflection Seismic Experiment and Integrated Studies) under the EUROPROBE umbrella. The German DEKORP2000 (GFZ Potsdam), funded by BMBF, decided to operate this project in June 1994. Until November 1994, the COCORP project (Cornell University, U.S.A), funded by NSF, and CICYT (Barcelona, Spain) got funding to join a western consortium on the operation ofURSEIS in 1995. Until the end of 1994, a Russian consortium, funded by ROSGEOLCOM, was built under the leadership of SPETSGEOFISIKA (Moscow), integrating the BAZHENOV Geophysical Expedition (Sheelite, Ekaterinburg), BASHNEFTEGEOFISIKA (Ufa) and the GEON institute (Moscow). All partners in the project join forces in financing, acquisition, processing, interpretation and publishing the results of the seismic experiment. The field parameters of the experiment (chapter VI) have been slightly modified in the meantime and include the Vibroseis source technique. The field campaign is scheduled for May-September 1995. The interdisciplinary studies (chapter Vll) have been approved by the E.C. in the frame of the INTAS-programme (International Association for the Promotion of Cooperation with Scientists from the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union). in October 1994 and started their operational phase.