First Images Japan's Earth Remote Sensing Satellite

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released the first images from the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) payload on their Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). This sensor can acquire high-resolution three directional 3-D data.

Goodrich Corporation's (NC, USA) Electro-Optical Systems team developed the high precision optical systems in the three PRISM payload telescopes that provide the three-dimensional images. Each telescope has an optical configuration allowing it to capture large areas on the ground. The mirrors for each of these lightweight systems are 0.6- metres in maximum dimension and are polished to a surface precision better than 10 billionths of a metre.