Earth Phenomena Environment Survey with Thermal Observations

Sector: Earth Observation

Number of satellites: 2

Form factor: 12 U


The VULCAIN mission aims at acquiring multispectral images of selected volcanoes to monitor the important scientific activity. The mission, led by Politecnico di Milano, will fly a formation of two 12U CubeSats positioned on a Very Low Altitude Circular Polar Earth Orbit, which poses technical and scientific challenges. To reach its objectives, VULCAIN embarks a specifically developed miniaturized Thermal Infra-Red (IR) imager and a Visible (VIS) camera, for multispectral imaging, and flies in formation to get a baseline for stereoscopic imaging of the Earth with particular relevance on volcanos and coastal areas. To push forward the border of high-quality science with nano-satellites, VULCAIN will demonstrate in orbit the possibility to reach high relative positioning precision and control, thanks to RF inter-satellite ranging and low thrust control in very perturbed orbits. Laser retro-reflectors will also be embarked in order to achieve high accuracy absolute orbit determination using laser ranging techniques from ground.

 

Proposing Teams: Politecnico di Milano (Prime), LEONARDO, INGV, LEAFSPACE, T4I, FLYSIGHT

‣ News

WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE 2020

PLATiNO Programme: signed the long term agreement ‣

In the presence of Hon. Riccardo Fraccaro, Undersecretary of State at the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers,  of Giorgio Saccoccia,  President of Italian Space Agency (ASI), and of Vito Pertosa, founder of Angel Group , the companies Sitael, Thales Alenia Space Italia, Leonardo and Airbus signed the long-term agreement for the commercialization and industrialization of PLATiNO Programme. MORE...