May 2017
India confirms commercial launch intent
... in a time-sequence manner. Once the quadpacks left the rocket, they opened to place the small satellites in orbit. All the 104 satellites were deployed in a 505 km polar Sun-synchronous orbit and, according to B. Jayakumar, mission director, one...
August 2017
On-orbit assembly will deliver major benefits in coming decade
... in which spacecraft are deployed for a number of important space missions Self-assembly, which involves small satellites with specialised capabilities self-organising to fulfill the objectives of a larger mission, is enabled by advances in formation...
August 2017
Space invaders and the usual suspects - disruptive trends in Earth observation
... internet ‘bubble’, two considerations moderate the relevance of this analogy. First, technology has evolved and new small satellites have improved in terms of performance/cost and performance/size ratios. Some (although not all) technological...
November 2018
Monitoring illegal rainforest deforestation
... occurs at 5.5 km from roads and about 1 km from rivers The proposed operational system will be composed of a constellation of small satellites in low inclination orbits to cover the equatorial belt as illustrated opposite. A constellation...
January 2019
Engineering six-hour solar eclipses with formation flying
... in the mid-1990s (within the Technology, Engineering and Quality Directorate) with the aim of developing small satellites dedicated to technology demonstrations. Up to now, three Proba missions have been successfully launched and operated, starting...
March 2021
iPhone moment for the Earth observation industry
... the price of EO data, geopolitical needs or new technological advancement leading to the availability of a new type of data. Small satellite constellations are on the rise, which will produce more data, but it is plausible that the focus will ...
