MOS-1 - "Marine Observation Satellite 1", also known as "Momo-1" - was Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's first earth observation satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

. It was launched on 19 February 1987 on a N-2 rocket from Tanegashima

Tanegashima

is an island lying to the south of Kyushu, in southern Japan, and is part of Kagoshima Prefecture. The island is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands....

.

It has three instruments: "Multi-Spectral Electronic Self-Scanning Radiometer (MESSR)" which offers 50m resolution in two visible and two infra-red spectral bands over two 100km swathes; "Visible and Thermal Infrared Radiometer (VTIR)" which has a much lower resolution in one visible and three IR bands over a 1500km swathe; "Micro Scanning Radiometer (MSR)" which measures microwave

Microwave

Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...

 emission in the 23GHz and 31GHz bands.

Its NORAD ID is 17527; it is in a polar orbit

Polar orbit

A polar orbit is an orbit in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited on each revolution. It therefore has an inclination of 90 degrees to the equator...

at roughly 900km altitude, but has not been active since November 1995.

External links

launch: http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/mos1/index_e.html

instruments: http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/en/hatoyama/satellite/satdata/mos_e.html

orbit: http://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=17527