Mission type Remote sensing Spacecraft type CBERS | Operator CNSA / INPE Bus Phoenix-Eye 1 | |
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Website China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program Mission duration 3 years planned
Launch failure | ||
China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 3 (CBERS-3), also known as Ziyuan I-03 or Ziyuan 1D, was a remote sensing satellite intended for operation as part of the China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite programme between the China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application and Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. The fourth CBERS satellite to fly, it was lost in a launch failure in December 2013.
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Spacecraft
CBERS-3 was a 1,980-kilogram (4,370 lb) spacecraft based on the Phoenix-Eye 1 satellite bus. It was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, in partnership with Brazil, at a cost of US$125 million for each party. The spacecraft had a single solar array which would have provided power to its systems, generating 2,300 watts of electrical power, and had a design life of three years.
The CBERS-3 spacecraft carried four instruments: MUXCam, a multispectral camera; PanMUX, a panchromatic imager; the Infrared Medium Resolution Scanner, or IRSCAM, and WFICAM, a wide-field imaging camera. These cameras were to have been used to observe a swath of 120 kilometres (75 mi) of landmass at a time, enabling the satellite to scan the entire surface of the planet every 26 days, with a spatial resolution of up to 20 metres (66 ft).
CBERS-3 was initially scheduled to be launched in 2010, however delays in its deployment, including failures in the electric conversion system, caused it to slip to 2013. The satellite would have restored the Brazilian government's ability to observe its own territory following a three-and-a-half-year gap caused by the failure of CBERS-2B. One of the objectives of the CBERS-3 satellite's mission was to help monitor the process of deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest.
Launch failure
A Chang Zheng 4B carrier rocket was used to launch CBERS-3. The launch took place at 03:26 UTC on 9 December 2013, using Launch Complex 9 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre. The satellite was intended to be placed into a sun-synchronous orbit, however the rocket malfunctioned, resulting in the loss of the satellite. China has begun an investigation into the causes of the failure.
In response to the failure, China and Brazil have called for an extraordinary committee meeting to discuss the causes for the accident, next steps to be taken in the programme and the acceleration the development and deployment of the CBERS-4 satellite, which had originally been scheduled for launch in 2015.