![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2014\/03\/proba_mission_operations_centre\/14306926-1-eng-GB\/Proba_Mission_Operations_Centre_small.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\nEngineers Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Hannoteau (left) and Eric Martin (right), part of the team manning ESA\u2019s smallest control room, used to command the Agency\u2019s smallest satellite family. \n<\/p>\n
\nWhile the majority of ESA missions are overseen from its major facility in Darmstadt, Germany, the three Proba satellites to date are all controlled from the same Mission Operation Centre at ESA\u2019s Redu<\/a> site amid Belgium\u2019s Ardennes Forest.\n<\/p>\n \nEach Proba minisatellite is smaller than a cubic metre, but they are tasked with full-scale missions. Proba-1<\/a>, launched back in 2001, is still going strong, acquiring hyperspectral multispectral Earth images. Proba-2, launched in 2009, keeps watch on the Sun and space weather. And the Vegetation instrument aboard Proba-V<\/a>, launched last year, tracks all of Earth\u2019s vegetation every two days.\n<\/p>\n \nProba stands for \u2018Project for Onboard Autonomy\u2019. As the name suggests, the satellite platforms have been designed to operate on a largely autonomous basis, overseen by a small team working standard office hours.\n<\/p>\n \nThe minisatellites rely on startrackers to work out their attitude, and GPS receivers to pinpoint their orbital position, with fine-pointing performed by reaction wheels and magnetotorquers \u2013 magnets that interact with Earth\u2019s magnetic field \u2013 to home in on targets set by their controllers.\n<\/p>\n \nOn 31 March the Royal Observatory of Belgium will host a workshop for all the Proba satellite teams, including scientific investigators. ESA\u2019s future Proba-3<\/a> precision formation-flying mission and Belgium\u2019s proposed Proba-based Altius limb-sounder<\/a> will also be discussed. For more information click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t \nEngineers Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Hannoteau (left) and Eric Martin (right), part of the team manning ESA\u2019s smallest control room, used to command the Agency\u2019s smallest satellite family. \n<\/p>\n \nWhile the majority of ESA missions are overseen from its major facility in Darmstadt, Germany, the three Proba satellites to date are all controlled from the same Mission Operation Centre at ESA\u2019s Redu<\/a> site amid Belgium\u2019s Ardennes Forest.\n<\/p>\n \nEach Proba minisatellite is smaller than a cubic metre, but they are tasked with full-scale missions. Proba-1<\/a>, launched back in 2001, is still going strong, acquiring hyperspectral multispectral Earth images. Proba-2, launched in 2009, keeps watch on the Sun and space weather. And the Vegetation instrument aboard Proba-V<\/a>, launched last year, tracks all of Earth\u2019s vegetation every two days.\n<\/p>\n \nProba stands for \u2018Project for Onboard Autonomy\u2019. As the name suggests, the satellite platforms have been designed to operate on a largely autonomous basis, overseen by a small team working standard office hours.\n<\/p>\n \nThe minisatellites rely on startrackers to work out their attitude, and GPS receivers to pinpoint their orbital position, with fine-pointing performed by reaction wheels and magnetotorquers \u2013 magnets that interact with Earth\u2019s magnetic field \u2013 to home in on targets set by their controllers.\n<\/p>\n \nOn 31 March the Royal Observatory of Belgium will host a workshop for all the Proba satellite teams, including scientific investigators. ESA\u2019s future Proba-3<\/a> precision formation-flying mission and Belgium\u2019s proposed Proba-based Altius limb-sounder<\/a> will also be discussed. For more information click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=219311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219346,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219311\/revisions\/219346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=219311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=219311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=219311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n