Landsat, Formerly ERTS Options

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LANDSAT DATA CONTINUITY STRATEGY (OSTP)

The U.S. Government will have to modify its strategy in to preserve the
collection of Landsat data, according to a recent memorandum from the
director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"After careful consideration in interagency discussions, all parties
agreed that adjustments to the current near-term strategy and
development of a new long-term strategy are required in order to
ensure the continuity of Landsat-type data," wrote Dr. John H.
Marburger III.

See his December 23 memo on Landsat Data Continuity Strategy Adjustment
here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/12/ostp122305.pdf

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NASA GSFC Solicitation: LANDSAT Data Continuity Mission

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=19712

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This image of Kebira Crater on the NASA Earth Observatory Web site
is from Landsat 7, taken on March 15, 2001:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/...p3?img_id=17208

To quote:

But why had no one noticed the giant Kebira crater before? El-Baz speculates that the crater’s massive size hid it in plain view. “The search for craters typically concentrates on small features, especially those that can be identified on the ground. The advantage of a view from space is that it allows us to see regional patterns and the big picture,” he said in a Boston University press release. Also, the double-ringed crater sits in sandstone that is 100 million years old, which means that the impact probably occurred around 100 million years ago. In the intervening time, wind and water have worn features of the crater away, making it hard to identify. For example, the beds of two ancient rivers run from east to west across the crater, leaving two gaps in the inner ring on the upper right side.

70,000 American football fields could fit in this crater.