Sentinel-1 spreads its wings

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Sentinel-1 spreads its wings

21 February 2014 When Sentinel-1 is placed in orbit around Earth in a few weeks, it has to perform a complicated dance routine to unfold its large solar wings and radar antenna. Engineers have recently been making sure the moves are well rehearsed.

Sentinel-1 is the first in a family of satellites built specifically to provide a stream of timely data for Europe’s ambitious Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

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Edited February 25, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf
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Sentinel-1 unfolds

Sentinel-1 is the first in a family of satellites built specifically to provide a stream of timely data for Europe's ambitious Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. It carries an advanced radar instrument to image Earth's surface through cloud and rain and regardless of whether it is day or night. During launch, this 12 m-long radar and the solar wings are folded, but once the satellite is released into orbit they deploy in a specific sequence.

Delivering vital information for numerous operational services, from monitoring ice in the polar oceans to tracking land subsidence, Sentinel-1 is set to play a key role in the largest civil Earth-observation programme ever conceived.

Credit: ESA

Source: ESA - Space in Videos

Edited March 12, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

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Solar wing test

Before Sentinel-1 is shipped to Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana for launch, it has spent a couple of months going through a last round of tests at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France. These tests included carefully unfolding the two 10 m-long solar wings.

Credit: Thales Alenia Space/ESA

Source: ESA - Space in Videos