Session
Technical Session VIII: The Horizion-- New Small Satellite Missions or Sensors to Broaden Our Understanding of Space: Section I
Abstract
The RapidEye mission is a commercial remote sensing mission by the German company Rapi-dEye AG. The RapidEye mission will deliver information products for various customers in the agricultural insurance market, large producers, international institutions and cartography. The mission that generates these information products consists of a constellation of five identical small satellites and a sophisticated ground infrastructure based on proven systems. The five satellites will be placed in a single sun-synchronous orbit of approximately 620 kilome-ters, with the satellites equally spaced over the orbit. The satellites will each carry a 5 band multi-spectral optical imager with a ground sampling distance of 6.5 meters at nadir and a swath width of 80 km. The RapidEye system has the unique ability to image any area on earth once per day and can also provide large area coverage within 5 days. This capability along with the proc-essing throughput of the ground segment allows the system to deliver the information products needed by the customers reliably and in a time frame that meets their specific needs. Dr.
Presentation Slides
RAPIDEYE - An Earth Observation Smallsat Constellation for Daily Agricultural Monitoring
The RapidEye mission is a commercial remote sensing mission by the German company Rapi-dEye AG. The RapidEye mission will deliver information products for various customers in the agricultural insurance market, large producers, international institutions and cartography. The mission that generates these information products consists of a constellation of five identical small satellites and a sophisticated ground infrastructure based on proven systems. The five satellites will be placed in a single sun-synchronous orbit of approximately 620 kilome-ters, with the satellites equally spaced over the orbit. The satellites will each carry a 5 band multi-spectral optical imager with a ground sampling distance of 6.5 meters at nadir and a swath width of 80 km. The RapidEye system has the unique ability to image any area on earth once per day and can also provide large area coverage within 5 days. This capability along with the proc-essing throughput of the ground segment allows the system to deliver the information products needed by the customers reliably and in a time frame that meets their specific needs. Dr.
