Project Struve

We present the current status of the space astrometry and photometry project STRUVE which is being designed at the Pulkovo Observatory (Russia) in cooperation with other Russian space institutes in order to extend the Hipparcos reference system. This project will include about 20 million stars down to V = 19:5 mag. The proper motions of the Hipparcos stars are to be determined with the mean accuracy of about 0.1 mas/yr. The mean accuracy of star positions in the output catalogue is expected to be better than 0.6 mas. A properly designed micrometer will give the possibility of observing all objects on the sky down to V = 14 mag. Key words: space astrometry; future projects. 1. INTRODUCTION The space astrometry and photometry project Struve (Yershov et al. 1995) is being designed at the Pulkovo Observatory in cooperation with other Russian space institutes. It is expected that launch will be before 2010 and a mission duration of at least 36 months is planned. The main objective is to ex..