With the entry into operation of the Sentinel-2 mission in June 2015, a new land monitoring costellation of twin satellites has been added to Copernicus project from ESA and new insights have been derived through the combination of Sentinel-2 data with other optical/multispectral data, and with other data from satellites belonging to the same Copernicus project. To this end, the objective of this paper has been to present new added-value tools first through the integration of different satellite platforms: data from NASA Landsat-8 and ESA Sentinel-1 have been used and combined, and furthermore through the comparison of satellite data all from the same Copernicus project: data from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 have been jointly processed and compared. Although data from optical/multispectral sensors, as those of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2, and data from SAR on board of Sentinel-1, are very different, their combination provides useful and interesting results. The integration and combination of these data can find useful application in many fields from oceans to waterways, from land surfaces to fossil deposits, from vegetation to forest areas. In this works authors have focused their interest in green areas and vegetation monitoring applications, by choosing as case of interest the Royal Palace of Caserta and its gardens. The idea has started from the increasing interest in monitoring the cultural heritage monuments and in particular the surrounding vegetation with the green areas and the parks inside. Satellite images can put into evidence boundaries modifications, the vegetation state, their possible degradation, and other phenomena such as changes in the territories due both to natural and to anthropogenic causes. Data combination from different sources as above specified gives a good number of indexes very useful to analyze the vegetation state and its health in a very deep way. Many of these indexes have been calculated and discussed for investigation.

This paper presents the results of a series of tests performed on a set of field emission electric propulsion (FEEP) emitters, including recording of the current/voltage characteristic curves and ion beam scanning with electrostatic probes, This work was aimed at collecting reliable, systematic thruster performance data to be used as a basis for the definition of a reference thruster mathematical model (not reported here). Four FEEP emitters with three different slit height values were tested. Thrust produced covered the 1-170 uN range. Repeatability of thruster performance was found to depend on the degree of wetting of the emitter slit and on the presence of glow discharge between the electrodes. The latter represented an undesired effect and was therefore eliminated after the first series of experiments. Wetting, on the contrary, proved to be of the utmost importance. In some cases, thruster performance improved by up to as much as 150% within a few days of the beginning of the test, as a result of enhanced slit wetting

The importance of earth observation (EO) from space is felt today more than ever in many different fields of human activity. Governments, international organizations, military bodies, private industry, and even individuals benefit every day of the products of spaceborne remote sensing technology. In this paper, we present a brief overview of some of the main trends in the EO scenario, focusing on the emergence of a new paradigm for EO space systems namely: the ongoing, disruptive shift from large satellites to constellations of small spacecraft, fueled by the recent introduction of several key technologies, such as for instance electric propulsion. We present the outline of a tool specifically conceived to assist the system architect in the early design phase of an EO constellation of microsatellites equipped with electric thrusters. A case study is presented for the application of a multisegmented constellation, with visual, thermal infrared, and radar components to remotely monitor a national railway network. We conclude that, in spite of the complexity of modern small satellite constellations, preliminary design can be successfully performed in a simplified and effective way.

Traditionally, the overlap between electronics and aerospace technology was limited to avionics, radars, satellites, and telecommunications. Sensors networks are emerging as an additional area of relevant interaction. In fact, in addition to the classical paradigm in which on-board sensors improve the navigation and control of aerial vehicles, e.g., in the fly-by-wire context, novel paradigms of cooperation between fixed networks of ground sensors and airborne ones are emerging today, especially for monitoring the environment. In this paper, we review current development trends and open challenges with reference to practical examples. We focus on the role of sensor miniaturization, energy harvesting, energy-aware communication architectures, and data fusion. Multidisciplinary development teams, with expertise spanning from microelectronics and data analysis, to operation of UAV swarms are expected to be necessary to address these challenges.

Sounding balloons, available at very low cost from commercial vendors and operable with minimal training, have an excellent potential as testing platforms in the near-space environment. The work reported here was motivated by the need to perform an experimental assessment of the radio frequency (RF) background present in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) bands, namely 868 MHz (Ultra High Frequency—UHF) and 2.4 GHz (S-Band), simulating the operational environment of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation forInternet of Things (IoT) telecommunications. To this end, five balloons were flown with a dedicated RF payload. Along with the radio measurements, the flights provided a convenient opportunity to collect data on the dynamic behavior of the payload gondola. We report on the system design and the operational phase of the mission, and discuss the data collected throughout the successful flight campaign. As a result, a preliminary understanding of the gondola dynamics has been gained, including both linear accelerations and attitude oscillations. It is also concluded that the two ISM bands considered are actually suitable for IoT ground-to-LEO links.