A panel from the National Research Council concluded that the Triana project could make contributions to Earth and solar science at a reasonable cost.
The Air Force is preparing to launch a fleet of microsatellites, minature satellites that utilize MEMs technology and weigh in under 20 pounds. The satellites would work in clusters to provide redundancy for critical missions and to perform more complex tasks than are possible with current satellites.
The Triana project, a earth observing satellite that would provide real-time images of the whole earth from space, is threatened by budget cuts from scientists who question its scientific utility.