ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

OHB System AG has developed a new flexible Standard Earth Observation Platform called ‘EOS’ with the objective to serve the new Sentinel missions of the Copernicus program. The Copernicus program is an Earth monitoring initiative led by the European Union (EU) and carried out in partnership with the EU Member States and the European Space Agency (ESA) to access accurate and timely information services to better manage the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security. OHB’s EOS platform is targeting both the Sentinel expansion satellites, which have been contracted 3 years ago as well as the Sentinel extension satellites which are in the study phase and also potentially Earth Explorer satellites and national missions not requiring very high agility. All of those have different orbits and payloads and therefore pointing requirements. The goal of EOS is to provide a generic platform design with suitable performances at low recurring prices to potential customers. As the satellite platform in most cases is composed of common and well-established technologies, it provides the opportunity of fast track and low risk platform adaptation to different mission needs. The challenge of the AOCS architecture for EOS was to determine the kind of sensors, actuators and algorithms necessary to build a reliable and at the same time flexible architecture capable to cope with all kind of missions by varying the performance, technology or number of the sensors/actuators within the platform overall design. This means to satisfy all constraints (mechanical, thermal, electrical and programmatic) from other subsystems while reaching the necessary accuracy to complete the mission tasks demanded by the payload. The AOCS architecture of the EOS platform is currently serving the Anthropogenic CO2 Monitoring Mission (CO2M) of the Copernicus program showing its flexibility and capacity to be adapted for a specific purpose while providing the required performances to complete a desired mission.