The demands for satellites from the Brazilian Complete Space Mission (MECB) encouraged research in the area in the country in the late 1980s. The interest in converging space advances with the development of local industries was an opportunity to strengthen the domestic economy and facilitate the search for new international partners for this process.
During this period, the Chinese emerged from two decades of isolation. The country, then, had the desire to raise the level of its scientific and technological competences. To this end, the Chinese government drew up guidelines for intensive development in various sectors, including industry and space.
The experience in the construction of satellites and launch rockets made China a great strategic ally for the Brazilian government. In contrast, Brazil was already familiar with the high technology used by the sector and an industrial park that is more modern than the Chinese.
Another characteristic common to both countries was the large depopulated areas with vast natural resources in the territory. The large expanses of agricultural land and environmental protection meant that Brazil and China needed constant monitoring of the territory.
Thus, a cooperation agreement was signed between the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and CAST (Chinese Academy of Space Technology ) for the construction of two remote sensing satellites. The joint work was officially started on July 6, 1988 and initiated the CBERS Program (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite – Sino-Brazilian Earth Resources Satellite) .
CBERS 1 and 2 satellites were built with the inclusion of optical cameras (imagers), intended for observations from all over the globe, a repeater for the Brazilian Environmental Data Collection System (see the previous article: Series Amazonia 1: satellites of data collection ) and other equipment for scientific experiments.
About camera technology
The WFI (Wide Field Imager) camera produces images over a range of 890 km wide, allowing images to be obtained with spatial resolution of 260 m. In approximately five days, complete coverage of the globe is obtained. The CCD (High Resolution Imaging Camera) camera provides images from a 113 km wide strip, with a resolution of 20 m. This camera is capable of orienting its field of view within ± 32 degrees, making it possible to obtain stereoscopic images of a certain region. In addition, any phenomenon detected by the WFI camera can be focused on by the CCD camera, for more detailed studies, through its field of view, at most every three days. The IRMSS scanning camera (Medium Resolution Scan Imager) has four spectral bands and extends the CBERS observation spectrum to the thermal infrared. IRMSS produces images from a 120 km wide strip with a resolution of 80 m (160 m in the thermal channel). In 26 days, a complete coverage of the Earth is obtained, which can be correlated with that obtained through the CCD camera. It is present in CBERS 1 and 2, but not in CBERS 2B. In this, it was replaced by the HRC (High Resolution Panchromatic Camera).
The agreement between Brazil and China allowed cooperation with the use of financial and technological resources from both nations. The investment was over US $ 300 million, of which 30% was from the Brazilian budget and 70% from the Chinese budget.
Through the CBERS Program, a complete international remote sensing system was implemented. The bilateral effort served to break down the barriers, break standards of restriction of international agreements with technology transfer and allowed the exchange between researchers of different nationalities.
In the third text of the Amazonia 1 series , follow more information about the CBERS Program .
About AEB
The Brazilian Space Agency, central body of the National System for the Development of Space Activities (SINDAE), is an autarchy linked to the MCTI, responsible for formulating, coordinating and executing the Brazilian Space Policy.
Since its creation, on February 10, 1994, the Agency has worked to make the Brazilian State’s efforts to promote the well-being of society via the sovereign employment of the space sector viable.