115. Letter From the Director of International Affairs, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Pedersen) to the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade (Olmer)1
(U) Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the technical issues raised by Secretary Weinberger’s letter of July 7.2 We defer to other agencies for an assessment of the continued overall desirability of establishing a Landsat ground station in Romania. However, as our technical responses have indicated over the past two years, it has been our assessment that the Daedalus requests are appropriate, minimal approaches to the establishment of a Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) ground station capability in Romania. We continue to hold that view.
[Page 315](U) As you know, since the inauguration of the Landsat system in 1972, it has been the policy of the United States to make all data from the system publicly available to anyone on a non-discriminatory basis. We have consistently urged other nations contemplating civil remote sensing systems to follow this lead and, in February 1982, the Romanian Government placed itself directly in opposition to the USSR and associated itself with this policy of non-discriminatory data availability.
(U) As a consequence both of the open data policy and of the demonstrated, unique value of multispectral civil remote sensing data, equipment and analytic techniques for use of multispectral data have been developed throughout the world. French and British companies have developed multispectral scanners for the world market. French, German, Canadian, and Japanese firms have developed ground station equipment for receipt of Landsat MSS data.
(C) The Romanian commitment to a Landsat ground station (which dates from February 1977) is representative of a global interest in the mid-1970’s to make use of the synoptic, repetitive coverage only available from such spaceborne civil systems. Moreover, the Romanian proposal to acquire this Daedalus airborne equipment is entirely consistent with patterns established in other countries (Canada, Brazil, the US, and China) in preparation for Landsat ground station implementation. In fact, an identical airborne multispectral scanner and three dual-channel scanners were approved for export to China in 1978 (CoCom (78) 455). At that time, five years ago, the US took the position that, “The scanner is roughly an order of magnitude poorer than U.S. military equipment installed in the RF-4 aircraft in the 1960’s and about two orders of magnitude poorer than current U.S. military production scanners.”
(S/NF) Our experience has shown that an airborne electro-optical multispectral scanner is neither necessary nor sufficient to develop a space-based system.3 The development program leading to Landsat–1 prior to 1970 was based primarily on experience with a multiple camera/filter system analogous to the Soviet MKF–6. Moreover, given the very different operating regimes, there are fundamental design differences between airborne and spaceborne multispectral scanner systems. These differences are sufficient, in our view, to make direct application of airborne systems design to space platforms infeasible.
(U) The value of airborne multispectral scanner systems today lies in their ability to simulate the operations of already established space system designs. This is precisely the role of the airborne [Page 316] system in the SPOT program. The SPOT program will be flying a series of missions this summer using an airborne multispectral scanner designed by MATRA to simulate the data from the SPOT spacecraft after it is launched next year. We understand that three of these MATRA scanner systems have already been provided to the Soviets. The MATRA-designed multispectral scanner for the SPOT spacecraft is a more sophisticated “pushbroom” scanner, using a linear array rather than a mechanical scan.
(S/NF) Since the airborne multispectral scanner proposed for export by Daedalus is restricted to some of the spectral bands employed in the Landsat MSS, it can simulate the operation of the Landsat instrument, but it cannot readily be used for development of a new instrument employing new spectral bands.4 However, as the basis for an R&D program, the Daedalus equipment is superfluous, since much worldwide MSS data from the Landsat itself is already publicly available on a non-discriminatory basis.5 These data could already have been acquired and been used to determine any tactical applications. Thus, the availability of this airborne multispectral scanner would not seem to represent a significant contribution to Soviet R&D efforts even if it were diverted.
(S/NF) It is our understanding also that the Soviets have had a longstanding program interest in multispectral remote sensing. This interest is reflected in the development of a camera system flown in the Soyuz/Salyut program and an electro-optical system now being flown on the METEOR-2 satellite series. The first of these, the MKF-6, which was first flown in 1976, employs six photographic systems operating simultaneously in four visible and two infrared spectral bands. From the 300 kilometer orbital altitude of the Salyut, the ground resolution of the system is claimed to be 15 meters. In addition, since about July 1977, the Soviets have included on the METEOR-2 meterological satellites an electro-optical multispectral scanner operating in four channels in the visible and near infrared spectral regions (resolution 600 meters) and two channels broad band (resolution 250 meters). This sensor was first flown on a Soviet spacecraft in July 1974. I have enclosed a copy of a recent Soviet submission to the United Nations which provides some insight into Soviet spaceborne remote sensing activity.6
(U) We have no new information regarding the state of Soviet airborne multispectral scanner development, but we note as a matter of record that, during evaluation of the identical scanner for export to China in 1978, the record showed that the technology and the detectors [Page 317] (including the spectrometer planar silicon array) to make equipment comparable to Daedalus were available both in free and bloc nations. It was also a matter of record at that time that scientists from the Soviet Ministry of Geology had presented some years previously (at open meetings in the United States) results from a two-channel infrared scanner using photoconductive, liquid nitrogen cooled, lead-selenide detectors operating in spectral bands nearly identical to those proposed in the current Daedalus cases. We presume Soviet R&D has proceeded beyond this stage in the intervening years.
(S/NF) With regard to the question of the tape recorders proposed for export by Daedalus, two points are germane. First, the US has approved for export to the USSR video television tape recorders on a number of occasions. In the early stages of the Landsat program (in 1972), NASA used the TR–70 video television tape recorder for Return Beam Vidicon video/FM data, but also (slightly modified) to record the 15 megabit per second digital data stream from the MSS. Presuming the Soviets would have been able to make similar modifications to their television tape recorders over the past ten years, the SABRE IV system proposed in this export (as constrained by the Romanian Landsat Guidelines) would actually be less capable than TR–70, which we used nearly twelve years ago. [less than 5 lines not declassified] We also agree that the potential for Soviet gain would be minimal in these cases, if proper safeguards were put into effect.
(U) In summary, we continue to believe this Daedalus equipment is appropriate to the stated end use and that the proposed safeguards will minimize risk of diversion.
Sincerely,
- Source: Reagan Library, Paula J. Dobriansky Files, Romania—Landsat (1). Secret; Noforn.↩
- See Document 112.↩
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- Not found attached.↩