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Proba-1 is a technology demonstrator turned operational Earth observation mission - ESA's smallest, less than a cubic metre in volume. Proba-1's main instrument is the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS), acquiring 13 square km scenes at 17 m spatial resolution in 18 user-selected visible and near-infrared wavelengths. This agile satellite can also deliver up to five different viewing angles. Nearly 20,000 environmental science images have been acquired.

Minimize Latest Mission Operations News

Proba-1 - Delay in update on the ESA Online repository

10 August 2012

Technical problems have been causing a delay in the processing and delivery of PROBA data for upload on the ESA Online repository and in the EOLI-SA catalogue.  

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'Eye operation' puts Proba-1 back in business

14 May 2012

After more than a decade in orbit, ESA's Proba-1 was showing its age - even hibernating last winter. But a software fix to its startracker, radiation-impaired after surpassing its design lifetime five-fold, has returned the veteran Earth-observing microsatellite to full operation.

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Shadows on ice: Proba-1 images Concordia south polar base

12 December 2012

ESA's Earth-observing microsatellite Proba-1 has glimpsed one of the loneliest places on Earth - Concordia research base in the heart of Antarctica.

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Proba-1 charting Earth's radiation belts for a decade

07 November 2011

ESA's Proba-1 recently celebrated its tenth birthday in orbit. Kept busy as an Earth-observing mission, the microsatellite has also been building a detailed...

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Small but agile Proba-1 reaches 10 years in orbit

31 October 2011

For most Earth-observing satellites, image acquisition is only a matter of opening a viewing aperture but Proba-1 is different.

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Minimize About this Mission

Proba-1

The Project for On-Board Autonomy (Proba) was originally a technology demonstration mission of the European Space Agency, started in mid-1998 and funded within the frame of ESA's General Support Technology Programme.

Intended as a one-year mission, Proba-1 has provided data successfully ever since its launch on 22nd Oct 2001. Hosting two Earth Observation instruments CHRIS and HRC, Proba-1 has been managed, since 2004, by ESA's Ground Segment Department within the Directorate of Earth Observation at ESA/ESRIN.

Data

Facts and figures
Operators ESA (European Space Agency)
Date of Launch 22 October 2001
Status Operating nominally in 2014
Orbit Height 615 km
Orbit Type Sun-synchronous elliptical polar
Repeat Cycle approx. 7 days
Resolution 18 m (CHRIS)
Swath Width 14 km (CHRIS)
Onboard Sensors provided under TPM
  • CHRIS (Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer)
  • HRC (High Resolution Camera)

 

Missions

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