THE ITALIAN Government has appropriated $40 million funding to allow Alenia Aerospazio's Space division to begin the development of a proposed remote-sensing-satellite system to monitor and manage the ecology and environment of the Mediterranean region.
The project has so far also won the support of Spain and Greece. Further investment is being invited from other countries in the region.
Called Cosmo/Skymed, the seven-satellite system would provide continuous monitoring of pollution, coastal erosion and other environmental phenomena. The system is is being developed as the result of a study ordered by the European Union.
Alenia's design work has resulted in a proposal for the satellites to operate in low-Earth orbits, with a low orbital inclination, to ensure regular coverage of regions in the 30-40¹ latitudes, which includes the Mediterranean. Four of the spacecraft would be "-equipped with microwave radar all-weather sensors and three with optical imaging systems", says Antonio Rodota, chief of Alenia Aerospazio's space division.
The 450-550kg-class Cosmo/ Skymed satellites would be based on the spacecraft bus being used for the Loral/Qualcomm Globalstar satellites being assembled, integrated and tested at Alenia's new Small Satellite Centre at Tiburtina, Rome. Finmeccanica, Alenia's parent company, has invested L50 billion ($35 million) in the 6,000m2 (65,000ft2) centre which was inaugurated on 30 January.
Alenia claims that the centre is the "first for high-rate satellite production". Forty-eight operational Globalstars, with eight back-up satellites and 112 antenna systems, will be built over 20 months, using a production technique featuring a series of working areas, or "islands", dedicated to a specific role.
The new centre features two production lines for spacecraft and antennas, each made up of eight production islands. The flexibility of the production system, also "-allows satellites of the same type, but with different payloads, to be assembled simultaneously", Rodota says.
Up to ten Globalstar satellites at a time can be in various stages of assembly. Alenia is optimistic that the new centre will enable it to capitalise on the predicted market for over 1,000 small-class satellites which have been proposed by several mobile-communications satellite companies and that it will eventually to be able to produce one satellite a week.
Source: Flight International
