Overview JERS-1 is an Earth Observation Satellite to cover the global land area for national land survey, agriculture, forestry, and fishery, environmental protection, disaster protection, and coastal monitoring, etc. focusing on observation around the world and resource exploitation. It was launched into a solar-synchronous sub-recurrent orbit at an altitude of 568 km with a recurrent period of 44 days by the H-I launch vehicle on February 11, 1992 from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (NASDA) Tanegashima Space Center, and has been continuing to observe and collect data with a mission data recorder by the high performance Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Optical Sensor (OPS). SAR is an active sensor which transmits microwave and observes characteristics, inequality, slope in the surface of the earth, etc. without being influenced by the weather day and night due to scattered waves from the Earth. OPS can observe in seven bands from the visible region to short wave infrared band and is capable of stereoscopic observation by forward look of 15.3° from nadir in near infrared band and highly is usable for identifying stones, rocks, and minerals. Characteristic Shape Structure Box type approx. 1m x 1.8m x 3.1m Synthetic aperture radar approx. 12m x 2.5m Solar cell paddle approx. 8m x 3.4m Weight About 1.4t Attitude control Three-axis stabilized(zero momentum) Design life 2 years Launch vehicle H-I(2-stage) Launch site Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima Launch date February 11, 1992 Operation end date October 12, 1998 Orbit Type Sun synchronous sub-recurrent orbit Altitude Approx. 570km Inclination Approx. 98 deg. Period Approx. 96 min. Recurrent period 44 days Local time at Descending node A.M. 10:30-11:00