SPIDER is a European Defence Fund project preparing the development of multi-mission affordable satellite constellations dedicated to space-based Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) for defence and government security use cases. These constellations, with satellites in the 300 kg class, will complement national and EU capabilities.

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The System of Systems must achieve short revisit periods, high reactivity, autonomous re-tasking, and short end-to-end latency. It provides capabilities with the following types of sensors:

■  Optical visible, including night vision

■  Mid-wave infrared

■  X-band Radar

■  Passive RF

■  Hyperspectral

 

An important element of SPIDER is the Federation Layer, the single user access point to all these constellations for tasking and image delivery. It enables reactive use cases such as tip & cue.