Space Technology

The U.S. Geological Survey and NASA are celebrating 25 years of partnership at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center near Sioux Falls. In August 1990, the USGS and NASA jointly established the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center at EROS to collect and disseminate critical land sensing information.

Two years ago NASA launched the Earth-observing satellite Landsat 8 which collects images archived at EROS. The images help document drought, deforestation, trends in seasonal vegetation, the impact of natural disasters and more.

NASA has awarded the $750,000 EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) grant to the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology to develop "direct-write printable spacecraft," which are thin, lightweight sheets that can land on planets, gather information and send the information back to the ship that released them.  The printable spacecraft can go into areas that humans cannot access - like inside a volcanic crater.  Dr.