Facts and figures
Full name: Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity
Platform: Proteus platform adapted to the needs of SMOS
Instrument: Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS)
Mass: 658 kg (platform: 275 kg, payload: 355 kg, fuel: 28 kg)
Power: deployable solar panels with Sicells, Li-ion battery
Launch: 2 November 2009 at 02:50 CET
Launch site: Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
Launcher: Rockot by Eurockot Launch Services GmbH
Orbit: mean altitude of 758 km and inclination of 98.44°; Sun-synchronous, quasi-circular, dusk-dawn, 23-day repeat cycle, 3-day sub-cycle
Mission control: via CNES (French space agency) ground station in Toulouse, France. S-band uplink and downlink for satellite health and housekeeping data and telecommanding through ground station network in Kiruna (Sweden), Aussaguel (France) and Kourou (French Guiana)
Data reception, processing & archiving: Data Processing Centre at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villafranca, Spain; long-term archive at Kiruna; User Services via ESA’s Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) in Frascati, Italy
Nominal life: three years (including a six-month commissioning phase) with a possible two-year extension
The design and construction of SMOS involved more than 20 European companies and hundreds of technicians and engineers around Europe. Spain’s EADS CASA Espacio is the prime contractor for the MIRAS instrument. Thales Alenia Space Industries (France) and CNES are responsible for the Proteus platform.
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