VENµS mission overview

VENµS (Vegetation and Environment New Micro-satellite) is a joint France-Israel space program. The satellite was launched in August 2017, the scientific mission started in march 2018 and will finish in August 2020.

VENµS is a dual mission that gathers both a scientific mission and a technological mission (IHET- ISRAELI Hall Effect Thruster).

The scientific mission is devoted to earth remote sensing in the visible part of the spectrum. It started on March 1st 2018, 6 months after launch. VENµS covers once every two days at least 123 sites representative of the main terrestrial and coastal ecosystems in the world. The 5 meters’ resolution images are taken in 12 spectral bands in the visible and near-infrared ranges with a 27 km field of view. This scientific mission is scheduled for 30 months’ operations. The CNES is in charge of this mission.

The technological mission is devoted to the qualification of an electric propulsion system. It started with a cycle of 2 days every month and will continue with a full 6 months’ period to decrease the satellite altitude from 720 km to 410 km, and then will go on at this altitude during 1 year in order to qualify the propulsion system in low earth orbit conditions. The Israeli Space Agency is in charge of this mission.

The aim of this presentation is to introduce VENµS, its potential and to open the way to the other presentations that will show how the exploitation is managed, the first results and more, …