Trishna is a mission to deliver thermal-infrared imagery of Earth’s surface at high spatial and temporal resolution. Its observations will help to gain fresh insights into the water cycle and improve management of the planet’s water resources, at a time when the local impacts of climate change are being felt increasingly around the globe. Trishna was deemed top-priority at CNES’s Science Survey Seminar last year in Le Havre and will further strengthen the agency’s partnership with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), as decided in 2018 during President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to India. The Board gave the go-ahead to engage the development of the satellite’s thermal-infrared instrument by Airbus Defence & Space.
Space Inspire is the new series of ‘flexsats’ developed by Thales Alenia Space to meet the future challenges of satellite telecommunications. This highly flexible and competitive family of satellites features a number of cross-cutting disruptive technologies spanning digital, active antennas and new bus solutions. CNES is supporting development of this new generation of satellites and technologies, with an eye on exploiting synergies between its investments and those of military applications likely to benefit. The Board gave the go-ahead to sign a framework agreement on these activities with industry.
The Board also renewed the mandate of Paul-Henri Ravier as Chair of the agency’s Public Procurements Committee for a further three years.
After this 362nd session, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall commented: “Today’s Board of Directors meeting took decisions that will be critical to our future activities, giving us the go-ahead to engage two new programmes with great potential. Besides being especially innovative, Trishna, developed with Airbus Defence & Space, and Space Inspire, developed with Thales Alenia Space, will allow CNES to exploit synergies in numerous fields for the greater benefit of our space programme and industry.”
