The SIRAL space instrument is like a messenger. The day will come when we'll have to say goodbye and watch it take off for its distant destination. And then, if all goes well, it will send us back a signal and provide us with valuable information about our fragile blue planet. To meet the challenges of building it requires us to invest all our skills and share the same passion.
copyrights ESA
What drives us? Above all curiosity. Will we be capable of making this instrument? Are we making the right choices? How will it behave when it's on its own? Will it fulfil its mission accurately? SIRAL will also be an explorer, so we need to prepare it. What can be more motivating than adventure? This object that we're looking at in the anechoic chamber already has a long history. Its predecessor never made it into space: the rocket that was carrying it went astray and returned to us transformed into a ball of fire streaking across the sky. Normally a lit-up sky is a fascinating sight, but not at moments like that. There was a feeling of sadness, and terrible disappointment: time seemed to stand still as five years of research, thought, discussion and hard work were wiped out in just a few seconds. But there remained a tremendous will to start again: a great project never dies…
Starting all over again is not just a question of getting back to work and once more using, as best you can, your know-how to meticulously design and produce a new instrument. It's about giving everything you've got, with an unwavering determination and confidence that provides you with unlimited energy. This sweeps away any fatigue, and united us in our determination to get back to work. Through the imperceptible waves that it will use to take the pulse of the ice and the oceans, SIRAL brings us all together as we listen to its heart happily beating away. It is ready to confront the vacuum of space, and soon it will satisfy our thirst for knowledge. An enormous amount of effort and worry, but also of hope and joy, is engraved deep in SIRAL's interior. This remarkable messenger reflects the spirit of a human adventure and the satisfaction of those who have taken part in it.
Derived from the Poseidon ocean altimeter on the Jason satellite, SIRAL-2 is a high performance and compact (70 kg) instrument that combines three measurement modes:
- Low resolution, for conventional altimetric measurement limited to the relatively flat terrain of the continental ice in the Antarctic.
- Synthetic aperture radar (SAR), to carry out high-resolution measurements of floating sea ice (ice sheets), enabling the indirect measurement of the sheets' thickness.
- Interferometric radar mode, to study more contrasted terrains, like the very active areas located at the junction of the ice sheet and the Antarctic continent, or Greenland.
Visit SIRAL's dedicated website at www.siral-instrument.com
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