FAS | Space | Guide | Portugal |||| Index | Search |

PoSAT - Portugal and Earth Observation Systems

Portugal's first satellite, PoSAT-1, was launched on 26 September 1993, as a piggyback payload on an Ariane LEO mission. Built by the UK's University of Surrey on a SSTL microsatellite bus, PoSAT-1 was inserted into an orbit of 793 km by 806 km at an inclination of 98.7 degrees. One of the central payloads on this 50-kg multi-mission satellite was the Earth Imaging System, consisting of "two CCD imagers, two lenses, and a Transputer Data Processing Experiment to provide on-board image processing and data compression" (Reference 634). The two different imagers permitted a wide-field capability with 2-km resolution or a narrow-field capability with 200-m resolution. Within a few months the small spacecraft had already returned more than 100 images of the Earth (References 634-636).

634. PoSAT-1 Microsatellite, technical specification sheet distributed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., 1993.

635. "First PoSAT Images", Space, December 1993, p. 6.

636. "Remote Sensing by Microsatellite", Spaceflight, February 1994, p. 71.

Sources and Resources

• Adapted from: Europe and Asia in Space 1993-1994, Nicholas Johnson and David Rodvold [Kaman Sciences / Air Force Phillips Laboratory]

FAS | Space | Guide | Portugal |||| Index | Search |