Orbit experience and first results of the BIRD-mission

Abstract

The DLR small satellite mission BIRD is dedicated to the remote sensing of hot spot events like vegetation fires, coal seam fires or active volcanoes from space. For these objectives a new generation of infrared array sensors are developed suitable for mall satellite missions. The demonstration of the performance of these sensors will be realized by the micro satellite mission BIRD. A lot of new small satellite technologies are developed to fulfil the high scientific requirements of the mission under the constraints of a micro satellite mission. That means the total mass of the complete spacecraft is 92 kg. The paper describes mission objectives, the payload, the spacecraft and the first results of the BIRD mission