Two of 5 RapidEye satellitesRapidEye's S-band antenna
RapidEye AG was a German geospatial information provider focused on assisting in management decision-making through services based on their own Earth-observation imagery. The company operated a five-satellite constellation producing 5-meter resolution imagery that was designed and implemented by MacDonald Dettwiler (now MDA) of Richmond, Canada.
Today, RapidEye refers to the constellation of 5 Earth-observation satellites owned by Planet Labs. The RapidEye constellation was retired by Planet Labs in 2020.
History
1996: The RapidEye business concept was designed by Kayser-Threde GmbH, based on a call for ideas from the DLR (German Aerospace Agency), on how to commercialize remote sensing in Germany.
1998: RapidEye was established as an independent company in Munich with seed financing from a few private investors and Vereinigte Hagelversicherung, a German agricultural insurance provider.
2008: RapidEye earned ISO 9001:2000 certification in April from TÜV Nord. On 29August 2008, a Dnepr rocket (a refurbished ICBM), was successfully launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, carrying RapidEye's constellation of five Earth-observation satellites designed and implemented by MacDonald Dettwiler (now MDA) of Richmond, Canada.[2]
2009: After the satellites completed their MPAR phase (consisting of testing and calibration) they became commercially operational in February 2009.
2011: RapidEye files for bankruptcy protection on 30 May.[3][4]
2011: Blackbridge Ltd. of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada acquired RapidEye AG on 29August.[5]
2012: On 18December 2012 the company announced that it has successfully relocated the company headquarters to Berlin, Germany.[6]
2013: On 6November 2013 RapidEye officially changed its name to BlackBridge.[1]
2014: Blackbridge Ltd. announced a new constellation called RapidEye+.[7] The constellation was never developed.
2020: In April 2020, Planet Labs retired the RapidEye constellation.[9]
Satellites
The constellation consisted of the following satellites: RapidEye 1 (codename Tachys, COSPAR 2008-040C), RapidEye 2 (codename Mati, COSPAR 2008-040A), RapidEye 3 (codename Choma, COSPAR 2008-040D), RapidEye 4 (codename Choros, COSPAR 2008-040E), and RapidEye 5 (codename Trochia, COSPAR 2008-040B). All five satellites were launched simultaneously on a Dnepr rocket on 28August 2008.[10] All of the satellites share a common orbit; they are separated in orbit by 19-minute intervals.[11]
Each of RapidEye's five satellites contained identical sensors, were equally calibrated, and traveled on the same orbital plane (at an altitude of 630km). Together, the five satellites were capable of collecting over 4millionkm2 of 5m resolution, 5-band color imagery every day.
The Jena-Optronik[13]multi-spectral imager, the Jena Spaceborne Scanner JSS56, was a pushbroom sensor carried on each satellite. Each sensor was capable of collecting image data in five distinct bands of the electromagnetic spectrum: blue (440–510nm), green (520–590nm), red (630–690nm), red-edge (690–730nm) and near-infrared (760–880nm). The nominal resolution on the ground was 6.5meters, corresponding to NIIRS2.
RapidEye's satellites were the first commercial satellites to include the red-edge band, which is sensitive to changes in chlorophyll content. Studies show that this band can assist in monitoring vegetation health, improve species separation, and help in measuring protein and nitrogen content in biomass.
Global revisit time: Daily (off-nadir) / 5.5 days (at nadir)
Inclination: 97.8° (solar-synchron)
Equator crossing time: 11:00am local time (approximately)
Ground sampling distance (nadir): 6,5m
Pixel size (orthorectified): 5m
Swath width: 77km
On-board data storage: Up to 1500km of image data per orbit
Image capture capacity: 5 million km2 per day
Sensor performance specifications
440–510nm (blue)
520–590nm (green)
630–685nm (red)
690–730nm (red edge)
760–850nm (near IR)
Applications
Imagery from the RapidEye constellation provided geospatial information to the following industries:
Agriculture – The RapidEye constellation was capable of field based, regional or global scale agricultural monitoring on a frequent revisit cycle. The information derived from the imagery could assist farmers in precision farming operations, agricultural insurers in damage assessment and risk management, or governments in food security and environmental compliance monitoring.
Forestry – Satellite-based information is increasingly being used by governments and commercial operators to assess forest status, evaluate management strategies,[16] measure the environmental and economical sustainability of forest operations, and monitor illegal logging and deforestation.
Security and emergency – Fast turnaround of imagery showing current ground conditions following a natural or man-made disaster is essential for crisis management authorities in assessing the situation and better coordinating rescue teams.
Environment – Satellite imagery can provide valuable information to governmental agencies or industries that monitor the environmental impact of human activities.
Spatial solutions – RapidEye satellite imagery was used as background imagery for a variety of purposes including mapping, navigation, flight simulation, gaming and as an integral component in geospecific 3D modeling.
Energy and infrastructure – The RapidEye constellation was used to monitor pipeline and transmission corridors and identify problems on the ground such as vegetation encroachment, nearby buildings, development of roads, and leaks. It provided land cover and land use classification data to telecommunication firms to assist in planning their antenna network.
Related Research Articles
RADARSAT-1 was Canada's first commercial Earth observation satellite. It utilized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to obtain images of the Earth's surface to manage natural resources and monitor global climate change. As of March 2013, the satellite was declared non-operational and is no longer collecting data.
DigitalGlobe was an American commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on 14 May 2009, selling 14.7 million shares at US$19.00 each to raise US$279 million in capital. On 5 October 2017, Maxar Technologies completed its acquisition of DigitalGlobe.
Satellite images are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell images by licensing them to governments and businesses such as Apple Maps and Google Maps.
RADARSAT-2 is a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Earth observation satellite. It launched on 14 December 2007 aboard a Starsem Soyuz-FG rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is owned by MDA
QuickBird was a high-resolution commercial Earth observation satellite, owned by DigitalGlobe, launched in 2001 and reentered after orbit decay in 2015. QuickBird used Ball Aerospace's Global Imaging System 2000. The satellite collected panchromatic imagery at 61 centimeter resolution and multispectral imagery at 2.44- to 1.63-meter resolution, as orbit altitude is lowered during the end of mission life.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space.
RADARSAT is a Canadian remote sensing Earth observation satellite program overseen by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The program has consisted of:
The Disaster Monitoring Constellation for International Imaging (DMCii) or just Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) consists of a number of remote sensing satellites constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and operated for the Algerian, Nigerian, Turkish, British and Chinese governments by DMC International Imaging. The DMC provides emergency Earth imaging for disaster relief under the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, which the DMC formally joined in November 2005. Other DMC Earth imagery is used for a variety of civil applications by a variety of governments. Spare available imaging capacity is sold under contract.
Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union Space Programme, managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the EU Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Frontex, SatCen and Mercator Océan.
GeoEye Inc. was an American commercial satellite imagery company based in Herndon, Virginia. GeoEye was merged into the DigitalGlobe corporation on January 29, 2013.
COSMO-SkyMed is an Earth-observation satellite space-based radar system funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Ministry of Defence and conducted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), intended for both military and civilian use. The prime contractor for the spacecraft was Thales Alenia Space. COSMO SkyMed is a constellation of four dual use Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISR) Earth observation satellites with a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) as main payload, the result of the intuition of Giorgio Perrotta in the early nineties. The synthetic-aperture radar was developed starting in the late nineties with the SAR 2000 program funded by ASI.
GeoEye-1 is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite owned by Maxar Technologies, launched in September 2008. The satellite was acquired in the 2013 purchase of GeoEye.
MDA Ltd. is a Canadian space technology company headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, that provides geointelligence, robotics and space operations, and satellite systems.
UK-DMC or UK-DMC 1, also known as BNSCSAT-1, was a British satellite that formed part of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). It was built by Surrey Satellite Technology, who operated it via DMC International Imaging on behalf of the British National Space Centre and later the UK Space Agency. It was launched alongside other DMC satellites on 27 September 2003, and retired from service in November 2011.
Sapphire is a Canadian space surveillance satellite which was launched in 2013. Sapphire was commissioned and integrated by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) based on an SSTL-150 bus produced by Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and an optical payload produced by COM DEV International.
Planet Labs PBC is an American public Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends.
Satellogic is a company specializing in Earth-observation satellites, founded in 2010 by Emiliano Kargieman and Gerardo Richarte.
Maxar Technologies Inc. is a space technology company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, United States, specializing in manufacturing communication, Earth observation, radar, and on-orbit servicing satellites, satellite products, and related services. DigitalGlobe and MDA Holdings Company merged to become Maxar Technologies on October 5, 2017.
Landmapper is a remote sensing satellite constellation built and operated by Astro Digital. It consists of two separate satellite designs: Landmapper-BC and Landmapper-HD. These satellites will be launched into Sun synchronous orbits varying in altitude between 625 km and 475 km. Both satellites are designed to CubeSat standards: 6U XL for Landmapper-BC, and 16U for Landmapper-HD. They will be contained in deployers designed by Innovative Solutions in Launch of the Netherlands and ECM Launch Services of Germany. These deployers are to be included on board a variety of launch vehicles, including the SpaceX Falcon 9, Rocket Lab Electron, Glavkosmos Soyuz, Antrix PSLV, and European Space Agency Vega.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
