Pleiades (satellite)

Pléiades 1A, Pléiades 1B
Operator CNES
Major contractors EADS Astrium
Bus Astrosat-1000
Mission type Earth observing
Launch date 2011-12-17, 02:03 UTC (HR 1A); 2012-12-02, 02:02 UTC (HR 1B)
Launch vehicle Soyuz STA/Fregat
Launch site Guiana Space Centre-ELS, Kourou, French Guiana
Mission duration 5 years (planned)
Orbital insertion date December 17, 2011 (2011-12-17) (HR 1A); December 2, 2012 (2012-12-02) (HR 1B)
Orbits sun-synchronous
Homepage http://smsc.cnes.fr/PLEIADES/
Mass 970 kg (2,140 lb)
Orbital elements
Inclination 98.2
Apoapsis 695 km
Periapsis 695 km

The Pléiades constellation is composed of two very-high-resolution optical Earth-imaging satellites. Pléiades 1A and Pléiades 1B provide the coverage of Earth’s surface with a repeat cycle of 26 days.[1] Designed as a dual civil/military system, Pléiades will meet the space imagery requirements of European defence as well as civil and commercial needs.

History

The Pléiades system was designed under the French-Italian ORFEO program (Optical & Radar Federated Earth Observation) between 2001 and 2003.[2]

The Pléiades programme was launched in October 2003 with CNES (the French space agency) as the overall system prime contractor and EADS Astrium as the prime contractor for the space segment.

Spot Image is the official and exclusive worldwide distributor of Pléiades products and services under a delegated public service agreement.

Launches

Technologies

Orbit

The two satellites will operate in the same phased orbit and will be offset at 180° to offer a daily revisit capability over any point on the globe. The Pléiades also share the same orbital plane as the SPOT 6 and 7, forming a larger constellation with 4 satellites, 90° apart from one another.[5]

Innovation

Equipped with innovative latest-generation space technologies like fibre-optic gyros and control moment gyros, Pléiades 1A and 1B will offer exceptional roll, pitch and yaw (slew) agility, enabling the system to maximize the number of acquisitions above a given area.

Agility for Responsive Tasking

This agility coupled with particularly dynamic image acquisition programming will make the Pléiades system very responsive to specific user requirements. Individual user requests will be answered in record time, thanks to multiple programming plans per day and a state-of-the-art image processing chain. Performance at a glance:

Products

Resolution Panchromatic: 50 cm
Multispectral: 2 m
Pansharpened: 50 cm ,
Bundle: 50 cm PAN & 2 m MS
Footprint 20 km swath
Single pass mosaics up to 100 km x 100 km

[6]

Ground receiving stations

When satellite operations begin, four ground receiving stations will be deployed for the direct downlink and archiving of imagery data:

Regional receiving stations (fixed or mobile) will subsequently be installed at the request of users.

Uplink Stations

The Pléiades tasking plan will be refreshed and uploaded three times per day, allowing for last minute requests and the ability to utilize up-to-the-minute weather forecasts.[7]

Applications of VHR imagery

The Pléiades system is designed for a range of very-high-resolution (VHR) remote sensing applications. These include:

See also

References

External links

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