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PICASSO is a CubeSat demonstration mission initiated by the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy.
Its objective is to assess the ability of very low-cost satellites to carry out atmospheric measurements. It is currently being implemented as an ESA mission. The project includes the end-to-end development of the satellite, launch by a VEGA rocket, operation, and analysis of the scientific data.
PICASSO will fly for two years along a polar orbit (altitude ranging from 475 to 500 km), with an inclination of 98°.
Its payload consists of:
- a miniaturised hyper-spectral imager (VISION)
- four needle-like Sweeping Langmuir Probes (SLP)