Abstract

VENμS (Vegetation and Environment New micro (μ) Satellite) is a micro satellite launched in 2017 by the Israeli Space Agency (ISA) and the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). VENμS is a research satellite that embarks two very different devices, an electric Hall Effect thruster, and a multispectral optical camera. This article focuses on the multispectral camera.

Since March 2022, VENμS has begun the final phase of its mission called VM5. At the beginning of this project, it had been planned to divide the mission in 3 phases specially to use the small thrusters, which are dedicated to a technological mission. Regarding to the highly satisfactory results of the first scientific phase VM1, it has been decided to create two new phases to finally reach an orbit at 560 km. This new orbit allows attaining increased characteristics such as a 1-day revisit cycle, a ground resolution of about 4m and a swath of around 20 km.

This article presents the different phases of the mission, its main characteristics and available products. A special focus is made on the radiometric calibration during VM5 in-orbit test phase. These activities include equalization (dark and nonuniformity coefficients), absolute calibration using desert and Moon images and performance assessment such as SNR or FPN. The results of each part are detailed.

VENμS data of the VM1 phase are freely available to everybody for peaceful and non-commercial uses on the French Theia land data center: http://www.theia-land.fr.

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Sep 13th, 2:10 PM

VENμS Mission Evolutions and Radiometric Performances During VM5 In-orbit Test Phase

VENμS (Vegetation and Environment New micro (μ) Satellite) is a micro satellite launched in 2017 by the Israeli Space Agency (ISA) and the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). VENμS is a research satellite that embarks two very different devices, an electric Hall Effect thruster, and a multispectral optical camera. This article focuses on the multispectral camera.

Since March 2022, VENμS has begun the final phase of its mission called VM5. At the beginning of this project, it had been planned to divide the mission in 3 phases specially to use the small thrusters, which are dedicated to a technological mission. Regarding to the highly satisfactory results of the first scientific phase VM1, it has been decided to create two new phases to finally reach an orbit at 560 km. This new orbit allows attaining increased characteristics such as a 1-day revisit cycle, a ground resolution of about 4m and a swath of around 20 km.

This article presents the different phases of the mission, its main characteristics and available products. A special focus is made on the radiometric calibration during VM5 in-orbit test phase. These activities include equalization (dark and nonuniformity coefficients), absolute calibration using desert and Moon images and performance assessment such as SNR or FPN. The results of each part are detailed.

VENμS data of the VM1 phase are freely available to everybody for peaceful and non-commercial uses on the French Theia land data center: http://www.theia-land.fr.