14 DAY TRIAL // Engineers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are currently working around the clock on developing and testing the critical control systems that will be used to manage the Sentinel constellation of satellites. The first vehicle in the series is scheduled to launch into orbit next year.
Under the European Commission’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program, the Sentinel spacecraft will conduct advanced, high-resolution Earth observations, monitoring several parameters of the planet at the same time.
The system will be used to improve environmental management, to understand the effects of global warming and climate change, and ensure civil security. All these objectives will be controlled from the ESA European Space Operations Center (ESOC).
Work on the system began in 2011 and involves creating new hardware, software, networks and other resources for managing the Sentinel-2 spacecraft – which is made up of two identical satellites.