14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) are proud to announce that their Proba-1 microsatellite has just turned 10 in Earth's orbit. Its anniversary is celebrated throughout this week.
Though very small, the spacecraft has produced such exquisite images that now hundreds of scientific teams worldwide are using its photographs for studies or monitoring. The satellite was at first intended to be a technology demonstrator.
Proba-1 has a volume of just one cubic meter (35.3 cubic feet), and yet it has been able to produce more than 20,000 environmental image using its Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) instrument.
About 446 research groups in more than 60 countries around the world are using Proba-1's images at this point. “Proba-1 remains the most agile and stable satellite platform in its range,” QinetiQ Space Belgium expert Frank Preud’homme says. His company built Proba-1 for ESA.