PROBA-1 - Earth Online

Featured

Celebrating ESA’s first small satellite with science success

Scientists and data users gathered at a special workshop to celebrate the end of PROBA-1’s CHRIS sensor and discuss the results of this overachieving mission.

Workshop celebrates end of long-running PROBA-1 satellite

In January, ESA will mark the end of its long-running CHRIS sensor onboard the PROBA-1 satellite in a special workshop.

International collaboration: Summarising ESA’s Third Party Missions

ESA’s Third Party Missions programme consists of more than 50 missions from around the world. Learn more about the Third Party Missions in this video.

Release of CHRIS PROBA-1 toolbox for SNAP

PROBA -1 continues to provide valuable hyperspectral data to the scientific community, and so the tools to handle this data have been incorporated into ESA’s SNAP multi-mission toolbox.

About PROBA-1

The Project for On-Board Autonomy-1 (PROBA-1) 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, this small satellite - less than 1 cubic metre in size - provided data from 22 October 2001 until the operational phase of the mission ended in December 2022. Though the PROBA-1 instruments no longer operationally provide imagery, the satellite is still active and is used to test algorithms and telecommands.

Orbit	LEO Sun-synchronous
Orbital Parameters	681x561 km
Swath Width	14 km
Orbit Height	615 km
Orbital Plane Inclination	97.9 degrees
Orbital Period	96.97 minutes
Repeat Cycle	Approx. 7 days

PROBA-1

PROBA-1 rolled in its orbit to take images: the satellite's platform and payload worked as one: spinning reaction wheels guided by a star tracker rolled it up to 25º side to side and ±55º/±36º along its path. This helped PROBA-1 to compensate for its 7.5 km/s speed, like a photographer panning to snap a moving target. So each target could be seen on up to five different angles (-55º, -36º, nadir view, +36º and +55º).

PROBA-1 Objectives

The objectives of PROBA-1 were:

In-orbit demonstration and evaluation of new hardware and software spacecraft technologies
In-orbit demonstration and evaluation of onboard operational autonomy
In-orbit trial and demonstration of Earth observation and space environment instruments.

PROBA-1 Instruments

The **Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS)** was the prime PROBA-1 instrument, used to explore the capabilities of imaging spectrometers on agile small satellite platforms.
find out more

The **High Resolution Camera (HRC)** was a black and white camera with a miniaturized telescope, studying Earth; it also returned data on its own immediate environment.
find out more

PROBA-1 INSTRUMENTS

PROBA-1 DATA

PROBA-1 TOOLS