Envisat 1

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General

Designation	27386 / 02009A
Launch date	1 Mar 2002
Country of origin	Europe
Mission	Remote sensing (to replace ERS)
Perigee/Apogee	796 km (10:00 AM descending node)
Inclination	98.5°
Period	100 min (35 days repeat)
Launch vehicle	Ariane V145

The cost is covered at 24.5% by France, 18.5% by the UK and 17.5 % by Germany. The total program cost (satellite, launch and exploitation) is EUR 2.3 billion. Operated by ESA

Launched in the same orbit at ERS 2, separated by 30 minutes. Managed to downlink through DRTS W in Nov 2006.

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End of life

Out of service	8 April 2012
Cause	Failure
Decay

The orbit was lowered to 783 km in October 2010 to minimize fuel consumption.

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External resources

http://envisat.esa.int/

http://miravi.eo.esa.int/en/
sat-index articles

Technical data

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Specifications

Prime contractor	Astrium (was Dornier)
Platform	MMS Spot Mk 2
Mass at launch	8211 kg
Mass in orbit
Payload mass	2050 kg
Fuel mass	319 kg
Dimension	26 m x 10 m x 5 m
Solar array	14 m (weighs 400 kg)
Stabilization
DC power	EOL: 6500 W
Design lifetime	5 years

2 on-board recorders provide 70 Gbits each storage and a backup tape storage is available too. Inter orbit link in Ka-band will be possible with Artemis (another ESA satellite which could be launched in 1999 via H2). The service module is largely derived from Spot 4.

X-band science data downlink upto 2 x 100 Mbps
S-band command and control: 2 kpbs uplink, 4 kbps downlink (2225 MHz)

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10 scientific payloads

ASAR (Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar): radar imaging, C-band, 27 m resolution. Built by Astrium
GOMOS (Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars)
AATSR (Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer): IR radiometer
MWR (MicroWave Radiometer)
MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer): visible and near IR imaging. Built by Alcatel Space
MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding)e
SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography)
RA-2 (Radar Altimeter)
DORIS (Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite): orbitography
LRR (Laser Retro-Reflector)
The French Scarab experiment was withdrawn

Many of these instruments were on ERS satellites and will followup.

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