VENμS Program: Broad and New Horizons for Super-Spectral Imaging and Electric Propulsion Missions for a Small Satellite

Vegetation and Environment New Micro Satellite (Venμs) is a joint venture of the Israeli and French space agencies for development, production, launching, and operating a new space system. Venμs is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) small satellite for scientific and technological purposes. The scientific mission includes vegetation monitoring and water quality assessment over coastal zones and inland water bodies. It will be specifically suitable for precision agriculture tasks such as site-specific management and/or decision support systems. For this purpose the satellite has apparatus for high spatial resolution (5.3 m) and for high spectral resolution (12 spectral bands in the visible and near infrared wavelengths), as well as orbit for high temporal resolution (2 days revisit time). The satellite\u27s orbit is a near polar sun-synchronous orbit at 720 km height. The satellite will acquire images of sites of interest all around the world. The satellite will be able to be tilted up to 30 degree along and across track; however, each site will be observed under a constant view angle. The technological mission consists of space verification and validation by mission enhancement capability demonstration of a newly developed Israeli Hall Effect Thruster (IHET) system, used as a payload. IHET is developed and manufactured by Rafael and this will be its maiden flight. The heart of the IHET is the HET-300 thruster, which produces about 15 mN thrust, operating at 300W anodic power. This thruster and the based-on Electrical Propulsion System (EPS), is specifically developed for usage onboard micro or small satellites, which can supply as little as 300 to 600 watts for operation. The technological mission will be targeted to qualify the IHET in space as well as validate it by demonstrating orbit transfer and strict orbit keeping in a high drag environment. The Venμs satellite is currently in manufacturing phase, its launch weight is 260 kg, and it is planned to be launched in 2010. This paper will present Venμs system with emphasis on the two main missions (scientific and technological) of Venμs and the respective payloads along with main design considerations of the electrical propulsion system