FUEGOSAT: the space payload for fire observation

The FUEGO mission was conceived, several years ago, by an industrial team led by INSA under the European Commission IV Framework Programme and ESA spin-off studies to provide early fire detection and monitoring to Mediterranean countries. The latest of a series of studies was the FUEGOSAT programme, with the aim to converge to an operational low-cost concept suitable for a microsatellite mission or as secondary payload of a larger system (such as the GMES Sentinels). The outcome of FUEGOSAT payload study was the preliminary design of a viable and flexible instrumentation set, which forms the basis for an efficient monitoring system. The present paper describes in detail the mission architecture, the major criticalities of the infrared payload and the solutions adopted to demonstrate the capability to achieve its mission goal, i.e. the monitoring of forest fires in their several phases of development. The flexibility of its design will permit the adaptation of its interfaces as consequence of the update of the mission requirements, as well as the technological evolution.