A new category of SmallSat research missions, called Scouts, is introduced by ESA. Scout missions distinguish themselves from Earth Explorers by relying on the New Space paradigm, by giving industry and non-profit R&D/academia a more pro-active role. This allows a low-cost approach (≤30M€) and a rapid development cycle (3 years from KO to launch) while using disruptive sensing techniques. CubeMAP is one of the two first Scout missions selected for implementation. CubeMAP is a constellation of three identical 12U satellites, each being designed to perform limb-sounding measurements of atmosphere transmission. Each satellite carries a payload made of two kinds of instruments. The first one, the High-resolution Infra-Red Occultation Spectrometer (HIROS), is a high spectral resolution spectrometer operating in LWIR narrow spectral range (1 cm-1) with high resolution (0.005 cm-1). It is based on the measurement of the interferences between the observed Sun scene and an on-board Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL), whose signals propagate through a Hollow Wave Guide (HWG). This configuration limits the sensitivity to shot noise in a compact design with low volume and mass. The second one, the Hyperspectral Solar Disk Imager (HSDI), is a multi-spectral Sun Disk imager. It aims at providing accurate pointing reference to the payload as well as pressure and aerosol measurements. The overall payload allows a spectroscopic measurement of the atmosphere transmission with high vertical resolution (~ 1 km FWHM) between 6 and 50 km altitude
The mission of the Earth Observation Programme (EOP) Directorate in ESA is to keep observation techniques at the most updated technological state, creating cutting-edge products and expanding Earth science knowledge. In recent years, in the spirit of its own mission, the EOP Directorate investigated the capabilities offered by small satellites establishing three different lines of mission implementation activities depending on the overall objective i.e., novel Earth Observation techniques in Earth science (Scout class), industrial innovation to support European industry competitiveness (InCubed class) or In Orbit Demonstration (IOD) of innovative EO techniques enabled by disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (Φ-Sat class). [ “Overview of ESA’s Earth Observation upcoming small satellites missions” M. Pastena et Al. 34th Small Satellite Conference]
Although these mission lines are all relatively new, they have produced a consistent number of studies, ideas and developments and in particular many CubeSat based mission developments.
This paper will present an overview of all the missions under development in the ESA Earth Observation Programmes which are based on CubeSats, starting with preliminary in-flight results of the Φ-Sat-1 mission launched in Q3 2019 representing the first ESA Earth Observation CubeSat mission. Within the Φ-Sat class a follow-on mission, namely Φ-Sat-2, has just started its preparation phase and it is planned to be launched by the end of 2022.
Concerning the Scout programme, for the CubeSat-based missions the focus will be on the ESP-MACCS mission, based on a small constellation of three 12U CubeSats, that has been selected for implementation as the first Scout mission. In parallel to the ESP-MACCS mission implementation, as part of the follow-up of the Scout consolidation phase, risk retirement activities will be initiated for the NanoMagSat and TANGO missions. Finally, the paper will present the InCubed missions based on CubeSat currently under preparation, i.e. MANTIS and Hyperfield.
KEYWORDS: Satellites, Commercial off the shelf technology, Space operations, Data processing, Artificial intelligence, Super resolution, Temporal resolution, Earth sciences
ESA Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes (ESA-EOP) have seized the opportunity to support the development of small and nano-satellites to complement the EOP scientific and application-driven flagship missions. These developments include new science driven missions and constellations which enable a significant increase in temporal resolution leading to new applications. This paper presents an overview of the NewSpace paradigm, describes the overall ESA-EOP small mission strategy and provides a brief insight into some of the small satellites being developed at ESA across three programmatic lines: Scout Missions, Φ-sat Missions and the Investing in Industrial Innovation (InCubed) Programme. The paper focuses on optical missions.
Some aspects of the CubeMAP mission (also known as ESP-MACCS) are presented: its science objectives, and the primary choices made to address them from small satellite platforms. The science case, addressing some key scientific questions related to global change, is elaborated in four objectives focused on upper troposphere and stratospheric composition and its change. The sounding methodology and the associated observation concept retained is a constellation of miniature limb solar occultation thermal infrared sounders, offering the advantages of limb solar occultation, whilst mitigating the inherent lack of coverage of this geometry. The mission focuses on tropical regions as the gateway to the upper troposphere, and the stratosphere. The miniaturized instrument payloads developed for the mission are briefly presented: the High resolution InfraRed Occultation Spectrometer (HIROS) and the Hyperspectral Solar Disk Imager (HSDI). Lastly, the nanosatellite 12U platform and its subsystem are described, completing the overview of the mission space segment.
KEYWORDS: Satellites, Image processing, Cameras, Spatial resolution, Signal to noise ratio, RGB color model, Interfaces, Space operations, Imaging systems, High resolution satellite images
The requirements of the natural resources sector for remote sensing products are generally very demanding both in terms of data quality and coverage/revisit time. The MANTIS mission (Mission and Agile Nanosatellite for Terrestrial Imagery Services) is being developed to specifically fulfil those requirements using a compact and agile 12U Cubesat system. MANTIS will embark the iSIM90-12U (integrated Standard Imager for Microsatellites) an innovative high-resolution optical payload for Earth Observation missions developed by Satlantis Microsats SL. The payload consists of a compact binocular telescope specifically designed to fit within a volume of 8U, and thus ideal for 12U CubeSat standard platforms. The design relies on iSIM technology, comprised by the integration of four key technologies: a binocular diffraction-limited optical system working at visible and near-infrared wavelength; a high precision, robust and light structure; a set of innovative COTS detectors with 2D CMOS sensors; and a high-performance and reconfigurable on-board processing unit with super-resolution algorithms implemented. Open Cosmos Ltd. as Prime is responsible for the end-to-end space mission service, including the provision of a new generation 12U spacecraft platform, while Terrabotics Ltd. will analyse and provide data to the end users. The mission is funded by the European Space Agency’s InCubed (Investing in Industrial Innovation) program supporting innovative activities related to Earth Observation enabling European industry to compete commercially in the global marketplace. An overview of the development status of the mission will be presented focusing on the consolidation of the payload design and the mission end products.
cosine Remote Sensing is leading the first ever demonstration of on-board Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to the combination of hyperspectral and thermal imaging. The sensing device is a miniaturized reflective optical instrument equipped with unprecedented processing capabilities. The European Space Agency (ESA) has contracted cosine Remote Sensing to highly integrate Thermal Infrared (TIR) technologies into a miniaturized Visible-Near-InfraRed (VNIR) hyperspectral imager and to fit the combined spectral channels in a volume of less than two litres. The imager is named HyperScout-2 as it will use the HyperScout-1 platform, that has flight heritage, as building block to further integrate spectral channels. HyperScout-2 is equipped with a hybrid processing platform composed of a CPU, GPU and VPU. The VPU is a state of art vision processing unit developed by Intel and is for the first time flew in space as part of HyperScout-2. HyperScout-2 will enable experimental programs to investigate the use of Artificial Intelligence for a variety of applications in the field of object detection and data inference. The first application that will be run on is cloud screening. HyperScout-2 will be used as in-orbit test-bed to benchmark the performance of such a miniaturized class of systems as well as to perform hands-on investigations to forecast the benefits of combining frequent coregistrated measurements in the VNIR and TIR from nanosatellites, with less frequent but very accurate measurements performed by institutional satellites such as the Copernicus fleet. This initiative is named PhiSat-1 and is part of the ESA EOP initiative to leverage small satellites to foster technology breakthrough developments. This contribution reports on a general description of HyperScout-2 as well as about the fast track program in which is implemented. We will also highlight the way the space asset will be exploited especially regarding the understanding of the potential of small systems deployed within small satellites constellation if integrated into ecosystems made of small and large systems. The PhiSat-1 is implemented as an enhancement of the FSSCat mission in a 6U cubesat based on Tyvak International platform integrating cosine Remote Sensing hyperspectral/thermal system. The cloud screening application is led by cosine Remote Sensing and supported by Sinergise, Ubotica and University of Pisa.
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