Deimos 1, the first commercial Earth-imaging satellite
This Elecnor project, developed by its subsidiary Elecnor Deimos Imaging and led by Pedro Duque, is 100% Spanish and a forerunner in its field, since this is the first time in Spain that space is being used for environmental management, precision farming and the fight against the climate change, positioning it at the forefront of the aerospace area.
Launched on 29 July 2009 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan), Deimos 1 has done more than 10,700 spins around the planet and has travelled almost 450 million kilometres, equivalent to 3 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, over the last two years. During this period, the satellite has taken 7,800 images of the world, creating a data file that covers a surface area of more than 690 million km2, almost 5 times the continental surface of the Earth.
In this way, the data that comes from space can be used for processes that are developed on Earth, which range from agriculture to the environment, including defence, the climate change, deforestation, the fight against natural disasters and water resources control. Deimos 1 provides a new high-capacity system which will noticeably improve global knowledge of all these phenomena.
This satellite has made the Elecnor the first European private company which operates its own Earth-imaging satellite.
About Deimos 1
Deimos 1 is a small automatic space platform equipped with cutting-edge technology, which provides optical and infrared images.
The satellite is designed to take pictures of the Earth with a good enough spatial resolution for a detailed study of its plant cover, but with a great visual field amplitude (over 600 km) to obtain very frequent images of each area at a reduced cost.
The Deimos 1 satellite’s characteristics allow it to fully cover Spain and Portugal twice a week and all of Europe in a maximum of 10 days.
Elecnor Deimos Imaging’s facilities in Castile and León provide satellite images as well as services and applications based on their processing, which can be used immediately by farmers or public administrations.
The satellite’s lifespan is estimated at five to eight years. This project represents a direct investment in excess of 30 million Euros and the creation of many highly qualified technical jobs.
Some unique achievements
In 2010, Deimos 1 carried out a complete inventory of all the tropical rainforests in the world for the European Space Agency (ESA) and in 2011, the satellite continues working for the European Union and the ESA in the GMES programme, supplying complete coverage of Africa.
In 2011, Deimos 1 was the satellite chosen to supply two complete monthly coverages of the United States so that its Department of Agriculture can carry out the satellite control of the North American agricultural land.
Deimos 1’s most notable milestones in its first two years of operating include having been the first satellite to provide images of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 4 March 2011 to the United Nations aid organisation for help in rescue tasks.
In the natural disaster aid area, Deimos 1 has also contributed, among others, to cases such as the floods in Jerez and Asturias in 2010, the fire in Benicolet (Valencia) last April, the recent fires in Arizona and the floods of the River Mississippi, in the United States.
