On February 27, 2022, the Long March 4 Cyao 30 carrier rocket was ready to go. The pictures in this article are provided by the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
At 7:44 on February 27, 2022, the Long March 4 Cyao 30 carrier rocket was ignited and lifted off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, sending the land exploration 1 01 group B star into a predetermined orbit.
Successful launch
The star arrows launched this time were all developed by the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The Land Exploration No. 1 Group 01 satellite is a scientific research satellite in the National Civil Space Infrastructure Medium- and Long-term Development Plan (2015-2025). As an important part of the Land Exploration No. 1 01 group of satellites, B satellite will be connected with the previously launched A satellite to build the world's first L-band dual constellation for surface deformation interferometry applications, which can meet the application needs of land resources, earthquakes, disaster prevention and mitigation, basic geographic information acquisition, forestry and other applications, and play an important role in maintaining the security of national resources and ensuring the safety of people's lives.
The Land Exploration No. 1 Group 01 B satellite weighs about 3.2 tons, and the total area of the SAR antenna is more than 33 square meters, which is currently one of the largest SAR satellites in orbit in China.
Land Exploration No. 1 is a distributed SAR satellite system, which is composed of two L-band SAR satellites with the same design parameters, and has two formation flight modes of "follow-up flight" and "orbital flight" in orbit.
In the "follow-up" formation mode, the double star takes the surface deformation interferometry as the core task, and can realize differential interference with a single star or a double star to achieve large-scale, millimeter-level high-precision surface deformation monitoring, effectively support the application of ground settlement, landslide, ground collapse, seismic deformation and other industries, which is a sharp weapon for early identification of hidden dangers of major geological disasters in complex areas, and is also an important satellite resource for emergency investigation of earthquake disasters and major geological disasters.
In the "orbiting" mode, the binary stars achieve close-range collaborative Earth observation through the high-precision phase, time and space synchronization between the stars, which can realize the high-precision ground elevation measurement of interferometric SAR, and effectively support the construction of the national natural resources survey system, the construction and updating of global geographic information resources, and the update of high-precision terrain data.
Like the A satellite, the Land Exploration No. 1 Group 01 B satellite weighs about 3.2 tons, and the total area of the SAR antenna is more than 33 square meters, which is currently one of the largest SAR satellites in orbit in China. The satellite operates in a quasi-solar-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 607 km, carrying an advanced L-band multi-polarized multi-channel SAR payload with all-day, all-weather, multi-mode earth observation capabilities.
The two satellites of Land Exploration No. 1 Group 01 A and B adopt three-junction gallium arsenide solar cells with long life, high reliability and average photoelectric conversion efficiency of more than 30%, and for the first time use domestic germanium substrates. At present, the A-star in-orbit data shows that the solar cell not only has no less electrical performance than imported solar cells, but also has better mechanical performance, which can meet the mission requirements of long life in orbit.
The successful launch of the Land Exploration No. 1 01 group of satellites has realized the development of the mainland L-band interferometric SAR satellite "from scratch", and will realize the autonomous and controllable sar data of continental differential interference. Compared with similar international satellites, the Land Exploration No. 1 01 satellite has significantly improved in formation system design, SAR system sensitivity, strict regression orbit control, etc., and is expected to achieve a leap from "useless" to "well-used" domestic differential interference SAR data, saving hundreds of millions of metadata costs every year, alleviating the dependence of industry applications on foreign SAR data, and providing strong support for the realization of the "Belt and Road" initiative and sustainable development goals.
Land Exploration I Group 01 B-Star Test Team
Long March 4 C Yao 30 carrier rocket test team
The Long March 4C carrier rocket that carries out this launch mission is a three-stage liquid carrier rocket at room temperature, which can adopt a flexible launch plan for different types of satellites, has the ability to launch satellites of various types and different orbit requirements, and can implement a single-satellite or multi-satellite launch with a single arrow, and its sun-synchronous circular orbit carrying capacity can reach 3 tons (orbital altitude of 700 kilometers).
On the first day of the Year of the Tiger on February 7, the Changsi test team rushed to the launch site with its bags on its back, quickly adjusted the state and put into work with the attitude of "the beginning is the decisive battle, the start is the sprint", and adopted the general-purpose WRP002 carrier rocket ground measurement and control system, realizing the miniaturization, automation and unattended measurement and control system.
This launch is the 87th launch of the Long March 4 series of carrier rockets, and the 153rd launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets developed by the Eighth Academy.