China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program

The China -Brazil Earth Resources Satellite Program ( CBERS ) is the name for a joint project between Brazil and China, in which a series of Earth observation satellite developed and operated.

History

First, should be developed and built in the framework of the program two satellites. The corresponding cooperation agreement was signed on 6 July 1988 with Brazil should have 30 % share in the development. Meanwhile, it was agreed in 2002 to three additional satellites and an expansion in the share of Brazil to 50% at CBERS -3 and 4, both countries have access to the shared images. These are intended to provide monitoring data in key areas, so for deforestation and fire in the Amazon region, water resources, urban growth, land use, education, and other applications.

Satellite

The first satellite of the series ( CBERS - 1 on the basis of the satellite bus Shijian 3 of chief designer Chen Yiyuan ) was successfully launched on 14 October 1999, with an initial phase of the project was already planned May 1997 as the start date. It is sometimes referenced with the Chinese name Ziyuan 1 (ZY 1) and remained until August 2003 functional, which he greatly exceeded its planned lifetime of two years. The second satellite ( CBERS -2) was launched on 21 October 2003 and the third ( CBERS -2B ) on 19 September 2007. All satellites were brought from the Baikonur Taiyuan into a sun-synchronous orbit at about 778 km altitude and an inclination of about 98.5 ° from Chinese Long March 4B rocket.

CBERS -1 and 2 are identical satellites. You have three multispectral cameras on board for remote sensing of the Earth.

CBERS -2B is similar to the first two satellites, but has instead of IRMSS a new camera High Resolution Panchromatic Camera ( HRC). Furthermore, a GPS and a star sensor for position control were installed. The new camera makes panchromatic images in the spectral range 0.50 to 0.80 microns, which covers part of the visible and near infrared of the electromagnetic spectrum. The camera has a swath width of 27 km and 2.7 m spatial resolution. For complete coverage of the Earth's surface are equipped with this camera 130 days required.

The satellites of the series are around 1,450 kilograms and is 1.8 x 2.0 x 2.2 meters in size. The span of the discrete extended solar boom which delivers 1100 watts of electrical power and is supported by two NiCd batteries with 30 Ah is 6.3 meters, the width of 2.6 m. The design life is about two years, and one hopes for 4 or 5 years. The position control of the three -axis stabilized satellite takes place over 16 smaller engines with a thrust Newton and two larger engines with 20 per Newton thrust, all working with hydrazine as fuel. The transmission of control signals is performed in the UHF and S band, the image data in the X-band (2 * 53 Mbit / s at CBERS -1/ 2 and 2 * 150 Mb / s at CBERS 3/4).

The satellite CBERS -3 and CBERS -4 have improved cameras and transmission systems. CBERS -3 was launched on December 9, 2013 at 3:27 clock ( UTC), however, the satellite was lost at the start.

Related types of satellites

A similar type also includes the pure Chinese and probably used by the military satellite Ziyuan -2, Ziyuan -2B and Ziyuan -2C, all of which were launched with Long March 4B rocket from Taiyuan. Ziyuan -2 has a similar technique as CBERS - 1, but flies at a lower 489 x 500 km Railway and has a higher resolution camera. It was launched on 1 September 2000. Ziyuan -2B flying on a 470 x 483 km Railway also with an inclination of 97.4 °. Ziyuan -2C followed on 6 November 2004 a 479 x 504 km Railway with 98.5 ° inclination.