The European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have just signed a new agreement, which paves the way for the development of an advanced type of optical data relay terminal

The state-of-the-art device should fly on the Sentinel 2 satellite, which ESA will launch soon. The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding together.

The document was signed today, October 21, in Paris, at the ESA Headquarters. Representing the agency was the Director of Earth Observation, Volker Liebig, and the Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, Magali Vaissiere.

Representing DLR was the head of the Center's Administration Department, Jurgen Mallwitz, and the Director of national programs, Christoph Hohage.

The space agency says in a statement that the five satellites which will make up the Sentinel constellation will form the backbone of the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program.

Sentinel 2's main job will be to monitor land and related environments, providing high resolution data coverage of various human activities. Its instruments will be able to snap photos at 10-meter resolution.

“Its data will benefit services in areas such as land management, agriculture and forestry and environmental monitoring as well as disaster control and humanitarian relief operations,” ESA says.

It will be DLR's task to enable direct communications between the spacecraft the ground controllers, via the so-called Optical Communication Payload (OCP). This tool enable the transfer of massive volumes of data at high speeds.

“The OCP, which uses laser communication technology, will accommodate the two Sentinels’ transmission data rates and communicate with a similar optical data relay terminal on a geostationary satellite,” European officials say in the press release.

“The Sentinel-2 satellites form an important element of the GMES initiative and will give Europe the ability to monitor environmental changes over an extended period of time,” Liebig said in April.

“GMES is a unique program and with the Sentinel B units we can ensure global coverage as well as the availability of long-term data, as required by the users,” the official added.

The €105 million ($141 million) contract to develop and build the second Sentinel-2 satellite was awarded to European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) subsidiary EADS Astrium.

The company was also awarded the contract to build the Sentinel-2A satellite, back in 2008. Both Sentinel-2 mission components are now to be constructed by Astrium.

The mission will rely heavily on a multispectral images for conducting its observations. It will be capable of observing the planet in both visible light and near-infrared wavelengths, using a set of 13 spectral bands.

This will allow the spacecrafts to create advanced images of the landscape below, which could then be used for a wide variety of civilian and military applications. Sentinel-2 will also provide data related to assisting disaster management and humanitarian relief operations.