PROBA is minisatellite technology demonstration mission in ESA's General Study Program with the objective to address issues of on-board operational autonomy of a generic platform.
PROBA (Project for On-Board Autonomy), renamed PROBA-1, is a Belgian
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
launched atop an Indian
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
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) satellites ...
by
ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
on 22 October 2001.
The satellite was funded through the
ESA
, 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 ...
's
MicroSat program.
This small (60×60×80 cm; 95 kg) boxlike system, with
solar panel
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...
collectors on its surface, has remarkable image-making qualities. It hosts two Earth Observation instruments dubbed CHRIS and HRC. CHRIS is a
hyperspectral
Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. The goal of hyperspectral imaging is to obtain the spectrum for each pixel in the image of a scene, with the purpose of finding objects, identifyi ...
system (200 narrow bands) that images at 17 m resolution, while HRC is a monochromatic camera that images
visible light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...
at 5 m resolution.
With an initial lifetime of one to two years, the satellite celebrated its 20th year of operations in 2021.
On 9 March 2018, it surpassed
ERS-2
European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS) was the European Space Agency's first Earth-observing satellite programme using a polar orbit. It consisted of 2 satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2.
ERS-1
ERS-1 launched 17 July 1991 from Guiana Space Centre ...
as ESA's longest operated
Earth observation
Earth observation (EO) is the gathering of information about the physical, chemical, and biological systems of the planet Earth. It can be performed via remote-sensing technologies (Earth observation satellites) or through direct-contact sensors ...
mission of all time.
Series of satellites
PROBA is also the name of the series of satellites starting with PROBA-1. The name is also used to refer to the bus of the satellites.
The second satellite in the PROBA series,
PROBA-2, was launched on 2 November 2009 together with the
SMOS satellite.
The third satellite to be launched was
PROBA-V
PROBA-V, or PROBA-Vegetation (the ''V'' standing for ''vegetation'' and not the Roman numeral for ''5''), is a satellite in the European Space Agency's PROBA series. It was launched in 2013 with a predicted usable lifetime between 2.5 and 5 yea ...
(PROBA-Vegetation), on 7 May 2013.
Further planned satellites in the PROBA series include the formation flying demonstration mission
PROBA-3
Proba-3 is a technological demonstration mission by the European Space Agency devoted to high precision formation flying to achieve scientific coronagraphy. It is part of the series of PROBA satellites that are being used to validate new spacecraft ...
and limb sounder
ALTIUS
ALTIUS (Atmospheric Limb Tracker for Investigation of the Upcoming Stratosphere) is a satellite mission proposed by the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy and currently under development by the European Space Agency.
Its main objective is to m ...
.
See also
*
Miniaturized satellite
A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...
References
External links
* http://earth.esa.int/proba/
PROBA-1 article on eoPortal by ESAPROBA-2 article on eoPortal by ESAPROBA-3 article on eoPortal by ESAPROBA-V article on eoPortal by ESAPROBA-V plus one article on eoPortal by ESA
Earth observation satellites of the European Space Agency
European Space Agency
Spacecraft launched in 2001
Spacecraft launched by PSLV rockets
Technology demonstrations
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