Landmapper is a remote sensing satellite constellation built and operated by Astro Digital (formerly known as Aquila Space). It consists of two separate satellite designs: Landmapper-BC and Landmapper-HD (formerly known as Corvus-BC and Corvus-HD). These satellites will be launched into Sun synchronous orbits varying in altitude between 625 km and 475 km. Both satellites are designed to

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...

standards: 6U XL for Landmapper-BC, and 16U for Landmapper-HD. They will be contained in deployers designed by Innovative Solutions in Launch of the Netherlands and ECM Launch Services of Germany. These deployers are to be included on board a variety of launch vehicles, including the

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...

Rocket Lab Rocket Lab is a public American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider, with a New Zealand subsidiary. The company operates lightweight Electron orbital rockets, which provide dedicated launches for small satellites. Rocket Lab also ...

Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...

Glavkosmos Glavkosmos (russian: Главкосмос) is a subsidiary of the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos. On 26 February 1985, the Ministry of General Machine Building of the USSR issued an order that formed the Main Department for the creati ...

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис� ...

Antrix Antrix Corporation Limited ( ISO 15919: ) is an Indian government-owned company under the administrative control of the Department of Space. It was incorporated in September 1992, as a commercial and marketing arm of ISRO by prompting, comme ...

PSLV The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...

, and

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, an ...

. Each Landmapper-BC spacecraft carries three separate cameras to gather 22 meter resolution imagery in the red, green, and

near-infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of Light, visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from ...

spectral bands. The Landmapper-HD satellite design includes a larger telescope to gather 2.5 meter resolution imagery in blue, green, red,

red edge Red edge refers to the region of rapid change in reflectance of vegetation in the near infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Chlorophyll contained in vegetation absorbs most of the light in the visible part of the spectrum but becomes al ...

, and near-infrared spectral bands. This imagery is processed on-board and then downlinked over a miniaturized high-speed

Ka-band The Ka band (pronounced as either "kay-ay band" or "ka band") is a portion of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum defined as frequencies in the range 26.5–40 gigahertz (GHz), i.e. wavelengths from slightly over one centime ...

transmitter. The common satellite bus uses

reaction wheels A reaction wheel (RW) is used primarily by spacecraft for three-axis attitude control, and does not require rockets or external applicators of torque. They provide a high pointing accuracy, and are particularly useful when the spacecraft must be ...

, magnetic torque coils, star trackers,

magnetometers A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...

, sun sensors, and

gyroscopes A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotat ...

to enable precision 3-axis pointing without the use of propellant.

Satellites

* Landmapper BC 1, COSPAR 2017-042Y, launched 14.07.2017 on Soyuz 2-1a rocket. Satellite failed shortly after being successfully deployed into orbit. * Landmapper BC 2, COSPAR 2017-042X, launched 14.07.2017 on Soyuz 2-1a rocket. Satellite failed shortly after being successfully deployed into orbit. * Landmapper HD, suborbital, launched 02.08.2017 on Vector-R rocket. Suborbital test flight of a Landmapper-HD. * Landmapper BC 3, COSPAR 2017-F05, launched 28.11.2017 on Soyuz 2-1b rocket. Launch failure, satellite lost. * Landmapper BC 3 v2, COSPAR 2018-004H, launched 12.01.2018 on PSLV-XL rocket. * Landmapper BC 4, COSPAR 2018-099K, launched 03.12.2018 on Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) rocket. * Landmapper BC 5, COSPAR 2020-085C, launched 20.11.2020 on Electron rocket. All satellites are also known by their former name Corvus (so for example Corvus BC 1 etc.)

References

{{Orbital launches in 2020

External links

Astro Digital: Our satellites
CubeSats Earth imaging satellites Satellite constellations