42 Years of Measuring the Sun, the Earth and the Energy in Between

• 5 min read 42 Years of Measuring the Sun, the Earth and the Energy in Between Alicia Cermak Contents Why Measure Earth’s Energy Budget? • 31, 1958, Explorer 1 became the first satellite launched by the United States. • Its primary science instrument, a cosmic ray detector, was designed to measure the radiation environment in Earth orbit. • Though its final transmission was in May 1958, it continued to revolve around Earth more than 58,000 times. • As those looping orbits continued, NASA was busy building other ground-breaking instruments to observe and better understand Earth’s systems. • By 1975, just five years after Explorer 1 burned up as it entered Earth’s atmosphere, NASA’s first Nimbus instrument launched, providing the first global, direct observations of the amount of solar radiation entering and exiting Earth.

Article Summaries:

• Explorer 1, launched on 31 January 1958, marked the United States’ first foray into space. Equipped with a cosmic‑ray detector, the satellite’s mission was to chart the radiation environment around Earth. Although its final telemetry ceased in May 1958, the craft completed over 58,000 orbits, providing a wealth of data on the near‑Earth space environment. The success of Explorer 1 spurred NASA to develop a suite of advanced instruments aimed at observing and understanding the planet’s systems, laying the groundwork for decades of Earth‑science research.

Sources:

• https://science.nasa.gov/missions/explorer/42-years-of-measuring-the-sun-the-earth-and-the-energy-in-between/
• https://phys.org/news/2026-02-years-sun-earth-energy.html