IMAGING

Airbus-built CHEOPS satellite successfully launched on Soyuz

The Airbus-built CHEOPS satellite has been successfully launched on a Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

CHEOPS is the first exoplanetary mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is also the first satellite built by Airbus in Spain for ESA. CHEOPS will characterise exoplanets of nearby stars, observing known planets in the size range between Earth and Neptune and precisely measuring their radii to determine their density and understand what they are made of. The satellite uses proven technologies to pave the way for bigger and more ambitious missions – with the aim of verifying if any exoplanet may be capable of supporting life. www.airbus.com

Building capacity in remote sensing in Syria

The Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO) Representation in the Syrian Arab Republic teamed up with the National Agricultural Policy Center (NAPC) and the General Organization of Remote Sensing (GORS) to conduct technical training session on the use of remote sensing technology to evaluate the effect of irrigation on agricultural production.

The collaboration between the partners concluded with an advanced session for selected experts who have attended previous training on remote sensing and its methodology and tools. The purpose of the session was for experts to become skilled in monitoring water productivity using data derived from FAO’s Water Productivity Open-access portal (WaPOR). https://reliefweb.int

China launches microsatellite for Ethiopia

China launched a remote-sensing microsatellite for Ethiopia, the African country’s first satellite, in order to help the nation’s research into climate change. The wide-range multispectral remote-sensing microsatellite donated to Ethiopia by China was sent into space together with eight other satellites by a Long March-4B carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi Province.

The satellite, weighing about 65 kg and with a design life of two years, can obtain remote-sensing data for agriculture, forestry, water conservation, as well as disaster prevention and mitigation, according to the China National Space Administration.

Solomon Belay Tessema, directorgeneral of the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute, said the government policies of Ethiopia focus on transforming agriculture into modern industry. The satellite data can be used for the analysis of agriculture, climate change, the environment, drought and natural disasters. www.xinhuanet.com

BRICS nations working on framework deal to build RS satellites

Space agencies of the BRICS group of nations have been negotiating a framework agreement to formalise the cooperation on building a ‘virtual constellation of remote-sensing satellites’, a senior minister in India, said.

According to Union Minister of State, Jitendra Singh, technical aspects with respect to identifying the satellites and the ground stations for the initial virtual constellation were discussed by the space agencies. The purpose of the proposed virtual constellation is to get access to satellite remote-sensing data, which could be used by the individual BRICS nations for various purposes, including natural resources management and disaster management, said the Minister.

Isro has set up five Space Technology Cells (STCs) at the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) in Mumbai, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Chennai, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and the Joint Research Programme with Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU, Pune), to carry out research activities in space technology and applications. www.business-standard.com

China launches new optical remote sensing satellite

China recently sent a new optical remote sensing satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China’s Shanxi Province.

The Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B satellite, which belongs to the Jilin-1 satellite family, was launched by Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) and entered the planned orbit successfully. The satellite was independently developed by the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., featuring high resolution, wide width and high-speed data transmission. The satellite will form a network with the 14 previously launched Jilin-1 satellites, providing remote sensing data and services for agriculture, forestry, resources and environment. Xinhua News Agency

China Natural Resources Aerial Geophysical and Remote Sensing Center Projrct

Luokung Technology Corp., China, has announced eMapgo Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (“EMG”) successfully bid for the Beidou highprecision digital map integration construction and application project, which was initiated by the Chinese Aero Natural Resources Survey and Remote Sensing Center.

As the only contractor of the project, EMG dedicates its professional technologies and leading advantages in digital map navigation to assisting the Chinese Aero Natural Resources Survey and Remote Sensing Center to build the high-precision digital map database in sub-meter level, lane-level navigation application platform and to develop thousands of lane-level navigation application terminals. This project will provide high-precision digital map demonstration services in internet of vehicles, internet travel, logistics and transportation, automatic driving, and urban transportation. The project is a national-level demonstration project for Beidou in high-precision positioning and intelligent travel application. www.luokung.com