ALISIO 1

ALISIO 1 [IAC]

ALISIO-1, a 6U CubeSat developed by Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), is the first Canary Islands satellite for Earth observation.

Planning for the prevention and response to natural disasters is the primary goal. It will make it possible to monitor a wide range of climate change-related environmental events, including floods, oil spills in the seas, wildfires, desertification, and excessive humidity in crops.

Its primary instrument is an IACTEC-Space-developed DRAGO-2 (Demonstrator for Remote Analysis of Ground Observations) camera, which was tested in the D-Orbit ION-SCV 007 Glorious Gratia carrier in the beginning of this year during a demonstration trip. In the two observation bands of 1.1 and 1.6 microns, DRAGO-2 can acquire high-quality multispectral images in the short-wave infrared with a resolution of 50 m per pixel and a sweep of 32 km for an orbit of 500 km. It makes use of uncooled InGaAs sensor technology, using less than 5.5 W of power on average. Because of its on-board image processing engine, the camera can compress, encrypt, and even process captured photos using sophisticated methods like super-resolution.

Moreover, the ALISIO-1 satellite has an optical laser communications module that enables faster image transmission than radio communication to any optical station on Earth. Additionally, this device will be able to produce a standard signal that will enable the measurement and characterization of atmospheric turbulence. The module is designed to receive a beacon in the L-Band (1590 nm) and operate a downlink in the C-Band (1550 nm). The IAC is actively involved in optical communications, and the tests conducted with this module will enable the verification and testing of the most recent developments in adaptive optics with plenoptic wavefront sensors.