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In the ASNARO Project organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), NEC is developing an advanced earth observation small satellite (300 to 500 kg class) based on its NEXTAR standard satellite bus system.
The METI ASNARO Project is currently in progress, with launch scheduled for fiscal 2012. As part of this project, NEC is responsible for developing and manufacturing the ASNARO satellite system.
The goal of the ASNARO Project is to establish new technologies for developing, manufacturing and operating satellites aiming for shortening delivery and reducing cost. Utilizing these technologies, a small earth observation satellite with sub-meter-class resolution is developed.
NEXTAR is the name of NEC’s standard satellite bus system family. For ASNARO, NX-300L bus (300 kg class) is adopted.
Modular architecture enables easy integration of various kinds of mission modules such as a high-resolution optical sensor, SAR sensor, wide-coverage optical sensor, hyper spectral sensor, and other modules for scientific missions. NEXTAR offers flexible, affordable solutions that meet each user’s requirements.
NEXTAR is a product that condenses the extensive experience in small satellite development that NEC has built up since 1970. With NEXTAR, NEC achieves a highly reliable and highly functional satellite system that is compact and lightweight, and can be delivered quickly, at a low cost. ASNARO is the first NEXTAR satellite.
Even though a small satellite (300 to 500 kg class), ASNARO features an excellent imaging performance enough to recognize cars or people on the ground.
The ASNARO satellite has four imaging modes that can meet various requirements.
| Item | Remarks |
| Imaging resolution | < 0.5 m in panchromatic < 2.0 m in multi spectral @ 500 km height |
| Swath | 10 km @ 500 km height |
| Spectral bands | Panchromatic: 0.450-0.860 um Multi spectral: 6 bands: (Ocean Blue): 0.400-0.450 um, (Blue): 0.450-0.520 um (Green): 0.520-0.600 um, (Red): 0.630-0.690 um, (Red Edge): 0.705-0.745 um, (NIR): 0.760-0.860 um |
| Slew angle | Max 45 deg |
| Data down-link | Rate: Up to 832 Mbps (incl. symbol data) Cannot operate at the same time as imaging |
| Data recorder | 120 GB (EOL) |
ASNARO can be effectively used for digital mapping, disaster monitoring, environmental monitoring, and other applications of satellite earth observation. Following the launch of ASNARO, next satellites such as SAR observation satellite and wide-coverage optical observation satellite are also planned, forming an ASNARO constellation. This constellation will provide global value-added observation services. NEC pursues this goal and contributes to realize an information society friendly to humans and the earth.
