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Conceived by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, ESA is developing TRUTHS on behalf of the UK and other partner nations across Europe. It will be built by Airbus in the UK with an international industrial consortium, and supported by European researchers.
As part of the mission’s development, TRUTHS now moves from Phase A, which is the feasibility phase, into Phase B1, which is the early design phase. This will eventually lead to the ‘adoption’ of the mission and to the selection of an industrial contractor to be continue its build and through to being ready for launch around 2029.
Beth Greenaway, from the UK Space Agency said, “The UK-led TRUTHS mission is making significant progress. As it moves into the detailed design phase, we can now see what it will actually look like. The mission will play a vital role in improving how we monitor climate change using satellite data and support the decisive climate action that global nations are negotiating at COP26.”
Nigel Fox, from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, added, “Working closely with the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency and industry, it’s clear the skill, imagination and comradeship that is involved in building a space mission. As the satellite moves through these important phases, many of those who will eventually benefit from the data may only just be starting school and I hope missions like TRUTHS will inspire them to pursue careers in this exciting sector.”
The TRUTHS satellite carries two main instruments: the Cryogenic Solar Absolute Radiometer and the Hyperspectral Imaging Spectrometer as well as a novel onboard calibration system. Together, these instruments will make continuous measurements of both incoming solar radiation and reflected radiation. These two observations will be used to evaluate the energy-in to energy-out ratio.
Dominique Gillieron, Head of ESA’s Earth Observation Research Missions, noted, “Building on our experience of multiple previous Earth observation missions, ESA leads the preparation phase of TRUTHS mission towards its final endorsement by end of 2022 at the ESA ministerial conference.