Tiny Proba-V Satellite Will Track Global Vegetation Levels
Posted By Ariel Schwartz On May 5, 2010 @ 3:40 pm In green technology | No Comments
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Ever wonder what the shift to a global agricultural system has done to vegetation levels? The European Space Agency plans to find out with Proba-V, a laboratory table-sized microsatellite [5] that can provide an overview of the planet’s vegetation growth on a daily basis.
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Proba-V isn’t the first vegetation [7]-monitoring satellite launched by the ESA, but it is the smallest. That’s because engineers have managed to shrink the standard vegetation satellite [8] by a factor of ten–all by combining three separate telescopes and exchanging glass lenses for aluminum mirrors.
The satellite is expected to go into orbit by mid-2012, at which point we’ll find out just how powerful a satellite that fits in a living room can be.
Via PhysOrg [10]
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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/tiny-proba-v-satellite-will-track-global-vegetation-levels/
[4] Image: http://inhabitat.com/2010/05/05/tiny-proba-v-satellite-will-track-global-vegetation-levels/wideeyedprob/
[5] microsatellite: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/04/nasa-to-launch-new-weather-satellite-in-space/&sa=X&ei=WMjhS6W1BIvANqrJwIoD&ved=0CAkQzgQoADAA&usg=AFQjCNHxxET8cDrbyqkwhdXmYT5ipoQO6A
[6] Image: http://inhabitat.com/2010/05/05/tiny-proba-v-satellite-will-track-global-vegetation-levels/2010_large-03-003-0120/
[7] vegetation: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/08/10/herzog-de-meurons-gorgeous-green-roofed-plaza-de-espana/&sa=X&ei=gsjhS4j0AYeCNsvmlYgD&ved=0CAkQzgQoADAA&usg=AFQjCNFK-bV2YbL_xkzNKa72w5QBjOM6xA
[8] satellite: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/08/european-scientists-finally-ready-to-launch-ice-measuring-satellite/&sa=X&ei=WMjhS6W1BIvANqrJwIoD&ved=0CAoQzgQoATAA&usg=AFQjCNGCY2Gon6XF1bazfJvx4twrzM32Sg
[9] + European Space Agency: http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMOYZJPO8G_index_0.html
[10] PhysOrg: http://www.physorg.com/news192208161.html
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