VULCAIN Spacecraft - Nanosats Database

Spacecraft name	Vulcain
Type	CubeSat
Units or mass	12U
Organization	Politecnico di Milano
Institution	University
Entity type	Academic / Education
Headquarters	Italy
Manufacturer	AIVT by ?
Operator	?
Partners	LEONARDO, Leaf Space, Flysight
Oneliner	Acquiring multispectral images of selected volcanoes to monitor the important scientific activity.
Description	Stereoscopic imaging of the Earth focusing on volcanos & coastal areas. The VULCAIN mission aims at acquiring multispectral images of selected volcanoes to monitor the important scientific activity. The mission, led by Politecnico di Milano, will fly a formation of two 12U CubeSats positioned on a Very Low Altitude Circular Polar Earth Orbit, which poses technical and scientific challenges. To reach its objectives, VULCAIN embarks a specifically developed miniaturized Thermal Infra-Red (IR) imager and a Visible (VIS) camera, for multispectral imaging, and flies in formation to get a baseline for stereoscopic imaging of the Earth with particular relevance on volcanos and coastal areas. To push forward the border of high-quality science with nano-satellites, VULCAIN will demonstrate in orbit the possibility to reach high relative positioning precision and control, thanks to RF inter-satellite ranging and low thrust control in very perturbed orbits. Laser retro-reflectors will also be embarked in order to achieve high accuracy absolute orbit determination using laser ranging techniques from ground.
Sources	[1] [2]
Photo sources	[1]
Keywords	VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit), Formation flying, Propulsion, Intersatellite links

Related Spacecraft

Satellite	Status	Rocket	Launch	Orbit
VULCAIN A	not launched	not launched	2027-12-30	not launched
VULCAIN B	not launched	not launched	2027-12-30	not launched

Last modified: 2025-01-01