1 - In accordance with the adage "small is beautiful," engineers at the French National Space Research Centre (CNES) have undertaken a microsatellite program aimed at sending satellites into space that are the size of a man and only slightly heavier (120 kg maximum). These microsatellites will be able to position and orient themselves with high accuracy thanks to pointing in three axes. This ability will allow them to carry out missions towards the Earth as well as space, generally in low orbits between 400 and 1,200 km. From 2002, the French will be able to offer two missions each year for a unit cost of around Euro 8 million, including launch, instead of the typical Euro 80 million for a telecommunications satellite. "Our scientific, industrial, and defense customers will benefit from the moderate costs. They will also have the advantage of only waiting for two years from the requirement arising and the launch of a microsatellite designed to satisfy it:' stresses Alain Grimbert, "Microsat" development manager at CNES. The CNES will provide the project management for the scientific applications.

        2 - The first mission, "Demeter" will be launched in mid 2002. It will enable a team of scientists from Orl6ans, south of Paris, to verify the correlation between variations in the Earth's magnetic field and seismic and volcanic activity. It will be followed by the "Parasol" mission for studying the Earth's atmosphere within the framework of scientific investigations of the greenhouse effect.

       3 - Unlike the various microsatellites that have already been built, the Microsat program has a true industrial character. "in order to provide launches at the lowest cost and with the shortest delays, we developed a line of homogeneous products," Grimbert explains. "From one microsatellite to the next, there will be the same platform as well as the same ground stations for programming and tracking the missions" To find out more contact

Global Design News,  October 2001
 
 

Answer the following questions:
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The text is about conventional communications satellites.
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The text is about (fairly) cheap satellites.
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According to the text, they are already in use.
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They will have scientific missions.
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They are designed as industrial products, not scientific ones.
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On the whole, we can say they are (fairly) simple and standardised.
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