Proba - The Little Satellite That Could

Just 60x60x80 cm and weighing only 94 kg, ESA's Project for On-Board Autonomy satellite, better known as Proba, is one of the most advanced small satellites ever flown in space.

The spacecraft was launched in October 2001 as a piggyback payload on India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), from the launch station at Shriharikota - a small island 100 km from Madras. Since its launch, ESA's Proba micro-satellite has been returning remarkable imagery of some of our planet's major landmarks with a compact instrument called the High Resolution Camera.

Proba's high-performing computer system and technologically advanced instruments have enabled it to demonstrate and evaluate onboard operational autonomy, new spacecraft technology both hardware and software, and to test Earth observation and space environment instruments in space.

Its main payload is the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS), a compact hyperspectral imager that returns detailed data on the Earth's environment, seeing down to a resolution of 18 metres.

Also aboard is the compact High-Resolution Camera (HRC), which acquires black and white 25-km square images to a resolution of five metres.

Proba was originally created as a technology demonstration mission, and has a high degree of onboard autonomy.

Operators on the ground send up the raw inputs of a target to be imaged - latitude, longitude, and altitude - and Proba itself does the rest.

Visit the Proba Website to check out some spectacular images:
ESA - Proba