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08 FEB. 2002
publication date
1860
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Size
Envisat is the size of an articulated truck
10m x 4m x 4m with solar panel and ASAR stowed
25m x 7m x 10m with solar panel and ASAR deployed
Weight
8200 kg at launch
includes 300 kg hydrazine fuel for orbit control thrusters
Power
solar array generates 6.6 kW of electricity after five years in orbit
Orbit
orbits Earth every 100 minutes at altitude 800 km
global coverage every 3 days (for most instrument)
exact repeat coverage every 35 days
Lifetime
5 years design life
both ESA's previous Earth Observation Satellites ERS-1 and 2 significantly exceeded their design lifetimes
Media modal
Artist's impression of Envisat in orbit
Instruments
ten instruments observing Earth
in wavelengths from 0.2 micrometer to 10 cm
Data gathering
Envisat will collect 1 Petabyte (1015 bytes) of data over its lifetime
enough to fill the hard disk drivers of a million desktop PCs
Datalinks
2 x 100 Mbit/s links via European Data Relay Satellite
2 x 100 Mbit/s direct downlinks to ground receiving stations
each link 2000 times faster than a standard computer modem
Data storage
160 Gbits total data storage on board
enough for 1.6 million square kilometres of SAR imagery plus one complete orbit of data from all the other sensors
Media modal
Inspecting the ASAR
Construction
satellite built by consortium of 50 companies led by Astrium
ground segment built by consortium of 20 companies led by Alcatel Space Industries
Launcher
Arianne-5 launch vehicle from Europe's Spaceport Guyana Space Centre
Cost
2 billion Euro over 15 years
works out at 7 Euro per citizen per ESA member nations or about 1 cup of coffee each a year
Participating states
Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
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