Our products
Our products fall in three different categories,
with distinct application domains. An overview
of the three families follows.
SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)
This family of satellites is dedicated to advanced
surveillance activities which should cover wide
areas with very high resolution. The satellite
is capable of identifying small vehicles down
to a resolution of 1m. Single individuals might
also be detectable depending on the observing
conditions.
An SAR image of Athens
- Source: NASA |
The key point of SAR satellites is the adoption
of a Synthetic Aperture Radar as the main (and
possibly only) onboard observation instrument.
The advantages of the SAR solution with respect
to others based on optical multi-spectral or panchromatic
cameras are relevant and can be summarized in
night vision and “thru the clouds”
vision. This instrument has however higher costs
and is more sophisticated to procure than optical
devices.
The key factor of satellite operation is the
revisit time of a target location, defined as
the interval elapsed between Ground reception
of successive images of the same target. A single
satellite will not provide a revisit time considered
sufficiently low for real-time surveillance of
critical sites. BP SAR program employs more than
one satellite on the same orbit or on different
orbits.
SAR Data facts >>
OpticSAT
High resolution optical payload mini satellites
(100kg to 500kg mass) are a low cost alternative
to the SAR equipped satellites.
Satellite above Earth
- Source: NASA |
For applications that do not demand close real-time,
low revisit time, night vision and “thru
the clouds” vision, this kind of satellite
is an attractive alternative. The satellite bus
is compatible with the one of SAR satellites,
but the size of solar arrays and batteries will
be reduced to take into account the much lower
energy requirements.
OpticSAT are dedicated to Earth and environment
monitoring and can be supplied with different
resolution instruments, operating at several wavelength,
including visible light and near infrared. The
low resolution version span wide areas in multi-spectral
mode. The high resolution version has a lower
field of view, and works in both panchromatic
and multi-spectral mode.
OpticSAT Data facts
>>
NanoSAT
This family of satellites exploit a modular
architecture for nano and micro satellites called
Aramis, which is being developed in cooperation
with the Department of Electronics of Politecnico
di Torino.
This family of satellites is devoted to small,
low cost applications, where flexibility and re-use
of components is a key factor to speed-up system
development and testing. Many different configurations
can be obtained by combining specially designed
tiles, to reach the desired size, shape, power
availability and processing power.
NanoSATs allow access to space technology
for small companies and regional governments,
which would benefit from a dedicated instrument
in orbit. They can be used for low resolution
monitoring of the Earth.
NanoSAT Data facts
>>
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