Planning for Gaps in NASA's Earth-Observing Fleet

NASA's Earth-observing satellites track aerosols, sea levels, land cover, cloud cover and other planetary indicators over years and decades. Keeping that continuous record intact is not only an engineering problem. A delayed launch or an unexpected on-orbit failure could create a gap in the data that scientists and operational agencies rely on.

Lindsey Jacobson, a Pathways engineering intern at NASA Langley Research Center, works on the NASA Earth Science Strategic Integration Environment, known as NESSIE, within the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate. The team supports the agency's Earth science satellite portfolio by mapping where coverage gaps might emerge and identifying alternatives before a disruption occurs.

Jacobson, who has returned to Langley every summer since 2022 while completing a mechanical engineering doctorate at North Carolina State University, describes the work as building a "foresight ability." The aim is to anticipate changes across the portfolio and have response strategies ready, rather than scrambling after an event. She compares the approach to pre-positioning storm shutters and sandbags before hurricane season.

Why Pre-Positioned Options Matter for Earth Science Data

The programme's logic is portfolio risk management translated into Earth science. NASA cannot eliminate the uncertainty of mission lifetimes, launch schedules or on-orbit failures, but it can reduce the cost of that uncertainty by doing contingency planning in advance.

Why Pre-Positioned Options Matter

Jacobson's hurricane preparation comparison is more than a metaphor. The team's tools are designed to show NASA leadership where a data gap might appear and what alternatives could fill it, whether a different mission, a repurposed sensor or a commercial data source. The core claim is that knowing options before an event reduces reaction time and protects end users.

A More Crowded Earth Observation Field

Jacobson also points to a structural shift: commercial companies are increasingly contributing Earth observation data alongside government agencies, new national space agencies are entering the field, and AI tools are becoming part of her team's workflow. That means NASA's continuity planning now has to account for a broader set of potential suppliers and technologies, not only the agency's own satellites.