Space, Sitael too brings Italian technology to Esa Chime mission

There will also be Sitael’s Italian technology on board the Esa Copernicus Chime mission. The Apulian space company will develop the technology for powering and controlling the hyperspectral instrument of the Chime satellite which belongs to the European flagship program for Earth Observation “Copernicus”. Specialized in the sector of small satellites, space propulsion and on-board electronics, Sitael has announced the signing of the contract with the German Ohb System Ag, Payload contractor of the Chime-Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission. “We are proud to confirm Sitael’s participation in the Copernicus program” said the president Chiara Pertosa. “We have already been involved in the past, with key supplies for the Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 3 satellites” and “with this new activity we confirm Sitale’s positioning in the European space landscape by providing technology for missions in line with the segment of our greatest interest: ‘Earth observation “underlined the number one of the space company based in Mola di Bari. The Chime mission, which sees Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor, is part of the development program of the Copernicus space component of the European Space Agency, in collaboration with the European Commission. The European flagship program Copernicus provides Earth observation data and a wide range of services for the monitoring and protection of the environment, climate, as well as the assessment of natural disasters, with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of life of citizens. Europeans. “The new Copernicus Chime mission – added Rüdiger Schönfeld, Director of Earth Observation Systems at Ohb System Ag – will help address future challenges such as food security in view of climate change. In this context, the Chime mission benefits from the accumulated knowledge. at Ohb as part of the EnMap project “. In particular, the Chime mission will have a unique visible to infrared shortwave spectrometer to provide routine hyperspectral observations to support new and improved services for food safety, agriculture and biodiversity management, as well as characterization. soil properties, sustainable mining practices and environmental protection. The mission, whose instantaneous range is 128 kilometers, will complement Copernicus Sentinel-2 with applications such as land cover mapping. Sitael, which ranks among the main players in the Space Economy, will develop and implement one of the key elements of the hyperspectral instrument: the sophisticated power supply and control unit, Ipu-Instrument Power Unit, which will have the task of powering and controlling the numerous indispensable mechanisms. for the operation of the instrument and will check its absolute stability in temperature. The Chime satellite will operate about 600 kilometers from the earth’s surface and the electronics of the Ipu have been designed to withstand the vacuum and cold of space, as well as strong radiation, and thanks to a redundant architecture will guarantee total reliability. Sitael explained that hyperspectral observations will ultimately be at the service of new and better services for precision and sustainable agriculture, for the management of biodiversity, as well as for the characterization of soil properties and for numerous other applications in defense of the planet. . The Apulian company highlighted how the contribution to the hyperspectral mission Chime “confirms Sitael’s thirty-year leadership in the development of highly reliable electronics for space use, counting solutions on board the most important space missions for scientific purposes – Integral, Ams02, ExoMars, Gaia , Juice- and Earth Observation (Copernicus, EathCare, Swarm) “. Finally, Sitael underlined that earth observation is also the sector of choice for the “Platino” satellites of the Italian Space Agency in which the Apulian company heads an entirely Italian team, for a completely multi-mission satellite platform. electric.