PleÌ iades: A multi mission and multi co-operative program

The new Pleiades concept proposed by CNES is based on a detailed mission analysis taking into account the evolution of the user needs and technical capabilities (smaller satellites), showing the request for 10 space components. Cooperation with other major European Countries and development of dual systems are two of the main objectives of the program, fulfilled by the agreement between France and Italy to develop a Dual System. Two Optical High Resolution satellites will be developed under the leadership of France and four SAR-X satellites will be developed under the leadership of Italy. Other components such as the Interferometric Cartwheel for generating high quality DEM, Wide Field and SuperSpectral systems for continuing and enlarging (to precision farming or environmental studies) the SPOT 5 mission are already under study. The remaining components (C band, L band and P band radar, thermal and hyperspectral missions) are envisaged through ESA programs.