Pleiades
From INVESaTWIKI
Pleiades
The longest experience in commercial earth observation
is gained so far thru the French SPOT programme.
Once the market leader in that domain, the
new VHR satellites of its US competitors gain more
and more ground. Based on user requirements and
market studies, the French space agency and French
companies compiled a list of 10 sensors, which would
fulfil the market needs. Whilst other data acquisition
techniques should be addressed in international
partnerships, France has considered the VHR optical
system as its highest priority. Based on minor contributions
from other European partners such as Sweden,
Belgium, Spain and Austria, CNES confirmed the goahead
of the phase C/D in 2003 with a targeted launch
of the first satellite by 2008 and the second by late
2009.
Built by ASTRIUM, France as a main contractor,
Pleiades will provide a pan resolution of 0.7m
at nadir and four spectral bands with a 2.8m nadir
resolution with an image swath larger than 20 km. The mini-satellite (mass < 1000 kg) has full
agility to allow flexible imaging and stereo modes. A
600 Gbit mass memory would allow to acquire data
from global targets, then down linked with 465 Mbit/s.
A total capacity of 250 images/day should be
achieved.
As mentioned earlier, Pleiades is planned to deliver
data for civil as well as for military applications and is
augmented in the SAR domain by a strategic alliance
with the Italian COSMOSkyMed programme. On the
civilian side, Pleiades is the French complement to the
European fleet of satellites, servicing the needs of the
GMES programme. [1]
References
[1] G.Schreier, S.Dech
"High resolution Earth observation satellites and services in the next decade - A european perspective".
