Scanning the Issue

Point of View: Radio as a Science Tool S. Asmar This month, our Point of View paper explores the use of radio technology not only as a wonderful communications tool but also as a means of determining important scientific measurements that have contributed to advancing space technology as well as other areas of discovery. Obviously, radio technology was one of the defining developments of the twentieth century. Achieving high precision in Bradiometric[ observations, such as the Doppler shift and range to the spacecraft, for example, requires great care in modeling all perturbations of the radio signals as well as calibrating all known sources of error. This paper takes a look at how more than 50 years into the space program, scientific fields built on radio (including radar) technologies are in transition but continue to play an important role in space exploration and scientific discovery.