Science

Sentinel-1B Has a Power Problem

Infographic about ESA and Copernicus Sentinel-1
Infographic via Copernicus & ESA

A flagship European satellite has a power issue.

Sentinel-1B (S-1B), an Earth observation satellite, hasn’t been generating data since Dec. 23, when ESA noticed an issue with the Sentinel and switched off its powerful radar platform. According to an alert published Monday, ESA was unable to restore the power needed for radar operations in recent days. 

Sentinel 101: ESA and Copernicus, the EU’s EO program, oversee the Sentinel constellation. S-1A and S-1B launched aboard Soyuz rockets from French Guiana in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Built by ~60 companies, the identical, polar-orbiting satellites are fitted with C-Band SAR payloads and provide all-weather, day-and-night data every six days. Thales Alenia Space Italy was the prime contractor for S-1A and S-1B. 

As Tomorrow.io’s Aravind Ravichandran notes in a helpful Twitter thread, if S-1B goes offline for good, it’d push Sentinel’s repeat cycle from six to 12 days. That would carry quite the opportunity cost, as Sentinel’s open, free data is a key asset for disaster response, emergency management, land-surface monitoring, oil spill observation, and more

Looking forward: ESA will continue to investigate the issue and attempt to fix the root cause. S-1C and S-1D are set for launches with Arianespace in 2022 and 2023, respectively. 

Related Stories
DebrisInternationalScience

Satellite Break-up Experiment to Help ESA Learn How Satellites Die

The Destructive Re-entry Assessment Container Object mission, or DRACO, will be the first demo of a fully controlled break-up during its return to Earth.

ResearchScience

Boeing To Launch Groundbreaking Orbital Quantum Experiment

Quantum entanglement swapping has been demonstrated in the lab, but never before in space.

LaunchScience

New Glenn Debut Delayed Along With EscaPADE Mars Mission

Blue has yet to test fire New Glenn’s second stage or perform an integrated first stage engine test firing.

Deep SpaceScienceTechnology

Europa Clipper’s Chips Are Good Enough For Jupiter

JPL launched a Tiger Team to assess if the $5B spacecraft could survive its Jovian voyage as-is.