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Arianespace and ESA announce two earth observation launch contracts
by Staff Writers
Evry, France (SPX) Oct 29, 2019

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The Earth Explorer Biomass - the seventh mission in ESA's Earth Explorer program - will provide global maps of the amount of carbon stored in the world's forests and how it changes over time, mainly through absorbing carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning, deforestation and change in land use.

Biomass also will provide essential support to United Nations treaties on the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

The Biomass mission will utilize a Vega launch vehicle, with the launch period starting in October 2022 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana (South America).

Vega is part of the Arianespace launcher family, along with the Ariane 5 heavy launcher and the medium-lift Soyuz; all three are operated from the Guiana Space Center. The industrial prime contractor for Vega is Avio, based in Colleferro, Italy.

The satellite will have a mass at liftoff of approximately 1,200 kg. and will be placed in a dawn-dusk, Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 666 km.

Forest type and forest cover worldwide can be detected by today's satellites, but Biomass will take the information to the next level.

The satellite will carry the first P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), able to deliver accurate maps of tropical, temperate and boreal forest biomass in terms of tons/hectare with a resolution of 50 to 100 meters. The global mass of trees is not obtainable by ground measurement techniques.

Other innovative applications that can be explored for the first time from space with the Biomass radar are the mapping of topography under dense vegetation and subsurface geology in deserts.

Biomass will spend at least five years making detailed observations and witnessing at least eight growth cycles in the world's forests. Observations from this new mission will also lead to better insight into the rates of habitat loss and, as a result, the effect this may have on biodiversity in the forest environment.

Airbus Defence and Space (UK) is developing and building the Biomass spacecraft using a bespoke structure embedding the AS250 avionics. The Explorer is based on the Astrobus Platform Line used, notably, on the following missions: SPOT6/7, KazEOSat-1, SEOSAT/Ingenio, PeruSAT-1 and Sentinel-5 Precursor.

Following the contract signature, Josef Aschbacher, Director of Earth Observation at ESA, said: "We are all aware of the climate crisis and how important forests are for our planet. Mapping forest biomass from space is a technical challenge because forests are complex structures. Nevertheless, the Biomass mission is up to the task and will spend at least five years in orbit, to deliver critical data to understand more about the carbon cycle and how our forest resources are changing."

Stephane Israel, Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace, added: "We are very proud to fly the Biomass satellite with Vega. Once again, Vega guarantees autonomous European access to space, enabling ESA to carry out a crucial mission as we face the challenge of climate change."

Arianespace and ESA announce EarthCARE launch contract
EarthCARE (Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) satellite - the sixth mission in ESA's Earth Explorer program - will advance our understanding of the role clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incident solar radiation back into space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface.

EarthCARE is a joint collaborative satellite mission conducted between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that delivers the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) instrument. ESA is responsible for the entire system - including the Spacecraft, three instruments including ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID), a Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) and a Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR), plus the Launcher and Ground Segment (with exception of the CPR data segment).

The EarthCARE mission will utilize a Soyuz launch vehicle, with the launch period starting in June 2022 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana (South America).

The satellite will have a mass at liftoff of approximately 2,350 kg and will circle Earth in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit, crossing the equator in the early afternoon to optimise daylight conditions, at an altitude of 390 km.

The altitude needs to be as low as possible to optimize use of both the lidar and radar, but not too low where atmospheric drag would impact fuel consumption and the lifetime of the mission. EarthCARE has a design lifetime of three years, including a six-month commissioning phase.

The mission's goal is to provide a picture of the 3D-dimensional spatial and the temporal structure of the radiative flux field at the top of atmosphere, within the atmosphere and at the Earth's surface. The high-performance lidar and radar technology, plus the synergistic use of the different remote sensing techniques embarked on board EarthCARE, will deliver unprecedented datasets allowing scientists to study the relationship of clouds, aerosols and radiation at accuracy levels that will significantly improve our understanding of these highly-variable parameters.

The ESA/JAXA EarthCARE mission will provide this information to improve predictions about the weather and future climate.

The satellite prime contractor is AIRBUS Defence and Space (DE).

Following the contract signature, Josef Aschbacher, ESA's Director of Earth observation, said: "EarthCARE is built to better understand climate change by measuring clouds and atmospheric particles. It is a joint mission between ESA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, demonstrating once more what international cooperation can achieve."

Stephane Israel, Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace, added: "We are delighted that ESA has awarded the launch of EarthCARE to Arianespace. As a result, we will be providing autonomous European access to space for this emblematic mission, which is to utilize technologies at the service of our planet. It also is an honor for Arianespace to once again participate in an ESA program in cooperation with the Japanese space agency, JAXA."


Related Links
Earth Explorer Biomass
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com


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Ariane 6's core engine completes qualification tests
Paris (ESA) Sep 30, 2019
Ariane 6, Europe's next-generation launch vehicle, has passed another key development milestone. Its Vulcain 2.1 liquid-fuelled engine has now completed its qualification testing, which means combined tests can now begin. The main stage Vulcain 2.1 engine will deliver 135 t of thrust to propel Ariane 6 in the first eight minutes of flight up to an altitude of 200 km. A review last week marked the culmination of two Vulcain static firing test campaigns over 15 months on two demonstration mode ... read more

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