The WIND spacecraft was launched on November 1, 1994 and is the first of two NASA spacecraft in the Global Geospace Science (GGS) initiative (the second spacecraft being POLAR). WIND is also part of the International Solar Terrestrial Physics Project (ISTP), it was specially designed to make coordinated observations with the other ISTP spacecraft (Geotail, Interball, Equator-S, Cluster,...). WIND's design duration was three years, but operations have been extended at least until the end of 2004.
The science objectives of the WIND mission are:
WIND was positioned in a sunward, multiple double-lunar swingby orbit with a maximum apogee of 250 Earth radii during the first two years of operation in order to study the regions near the magnetospheric bow shock and the magnetopause. This was followed by a halo orbit at the Earth-Sun L1 point for several months, allowing measurements of the solar wind before it interacts with the geomagnetic field. WIND then made two passes by the Moon, and subsequently began a six-month series of petal orbits that took it out of the ecliptic plane. Starting in October 1998, WIND flew in an orbit that brought it as close as 10 Earth radii (about 63,000 km) and as far as 80 Earth radii from our planet. More importantly, the orbit took WIND at an angle of 60 degrees from the ecliptic plane. WIND's trips above and below the ecliptic allow the spacecraft to sample regions of interplanetary space and of the magnetosphere that have never before been studied.
WIND is spin stabilised with rotation axis within one degree of the normal to the ecliptic plane.
More detailed information can be obtained from the WIND's dedicated web site (https://wind.nasa.gov/).
Version:2.4.0
The WIND spacecraft was launched on November 1, 1994 and is the first of two NASA spacecraft in the Global Geospace Science (GGS) initiative (the second spacecraft being POLAR). WIND is also part of the International Solar Terrestrial Physics Project (ISTP), it was specially designed to make coordinated observations with the other ISTP spacecraft (Geotail, Interball, Equator-S, Cluster,...). WIND's design duration was three years, but operations have been extended at least until the end of 2004.
The science objectives of the WIND mission are:
WIND was positioned in a sunward, multiple double-lunar swingby orbit with a maximum apogee of 250 Earth radii during the first two years of operation in order to study the regions near the magnetospheric bow shock and the magnetopause. This was followed by a halo orbit at the Earth-Sun L1 point for several months, allowing measurements of the solar wind before it interacts with the geomagnetic field. WIND then made two passes by the Moon, and subsequently began a six-month series of petal orbits that took it out of the ecliptic plane. Starting in October 1998, WIND flew in an orbit that brought it as close as 10 Earth radii (about 63,000 km) and as far as 80 Earth radii from our planet. More importantly, the orbit took WIND at an angle of 60 degrees from the ecliptic plane. WIND's trips above and below the ecliptic allow the spacecraft to sample regions of interplanetary space and of the magnetosphere that have never before been studied.
WIND is spin stabilised with rotation axis within one degree of the normal to the ecliptic plane.
More detailed information can be obtained from the WIND's dedicated web site (https://wind.nasa.gov/).
| Role | Person | StartDate | StopDate | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ProjectScientist | spase://CNES/Person/CDPP-Archive/Keith.Ogilvie | |||
| 2. | ProjectScientist | spase://CNES/Person/CDPP-Archive/Adam.Szabo |