Ofek 7 after the successful launch are waiting for pictures

 Dr. Gabi Sarousi - Vice President and Director of the Visual and Space Intelligence Division - Elouf says in a conversation with the Hidaan website that the telescope on the satellite is one of the most sophisticated, and it stores within it the extensive experience the company has gained in the production of space cameras 

 Dr. Gabi Sarosi

In Israel, they are waiting impatiently for the first pictures that he will broadcast The Ofek 7 satellite that was launched yesterday at 02:40 at night from Falmahim, After reaching an elliptical intermediate orbit. Now the satellite is in orbit at an altitude ranging from 300 to 600 kilometers and the intention is to stabilize it at an altitude of 450 kilometers.
Haaretz newspaper reported today that the new satellite is not yet part of the new generation in the Ofek satellite series. It, like its predecessor "Ofek 5", belongs to the "family of second generation satellites", as it is called in the aerospace industry. However, the capabilities of the new satellite have been improved, and it is equipped, among other things, with a more advanced camera. In the security system, they are working on the development of a "third generation" satellite that will be able to provide images with a much sharper and more advanced resolution.
With the launch of the new satellite, it will provide the Israeli security system with images at the same time as those provided by the "Ofek 5" satellite, which was launched into space about five years ago, and the commercial Eros B satellite, which was launched over a year ago. The combination of the activity of the two satellites will make it possible to receive a lot of information in a shorter time interval from the same site as well as pictures from different angles of certain sites and sometimes at the same time.
By the end of the year, five Israeli photography satellites will cover the Earth's surface when Ofek 5, Ofek 7, Eros B and Eros A will join Another satellite that will be launched this summer from India - the Polaris satellite (formerly TECHSAR), of Alta, will photograph the Earth using radar, day, night and in all weathers.

As mentioned, the Ofek 7 satellite is equipped with the space camera of Elbit Systems Electro Optics - Alup. Alup is considered one of the leading developers and manufacturers of space cameras in the world. Alup's space cameras are located on two Israeli civilian satellites: Eros and Eros B, as well as on the two Israeli intelligence satellites Ofek 5 and, as mentioned, Ofek 7.

Dr. Gabi Sarosi - Vice President and Director of the Visual and Space Intelligence Division - Elouf says in a conversation with the Hidaan site that from publications that ran around in the media today, the resolution of the camera is 70 centimeters per pixel (this figure is similar to Eros. A.B.). We took special care of the stability of the telescope so that the level of aberrations in it is very low and therefore the quality of the images obtained is at a very high level. The entire process of aligning the telescope and adapting it to the space atmosphere was carried out very carefully so that when it is in space it will reach its optimal values.

What skills were required to build such a camera?
Sarosi: "There are three main engineering disciplines. Those who worked on this project were first class opticians who designed the optical setup, mechanical engineers who worked on the opto-mechanical section concerning the stability of the structure, its resistance to changing temperature conditions and changing gradients (for example how it will behave when one side faces the sun and the other side is hidden). In addition, electronics engineers were also involved in the development of the satellite, who were supposed to deal with a tremendous pixel rate and a very large dynamic range, and with very fast electronics that were also supposed to withstand the conditions of space - vacuum temperature and radiation and still continue to function over time at the required rate and reliability.
In addition, the entire process is controlled by a very strict assembly process of space engineers who have gained a lot of experience in assembling targets for the space field and are backed by a complete set of quality assurance whose people have also specialized in the production of products in the space field where the goal is that the products we produce will not fail in any process of integration of the satellite systems, integration into the missile, To withstand the strong fluctuations of the launch process and also to reach space and know how to withstand the thermal cycles of day and night that alternate in an hour and a half cycle and changing temperature and survive all these conditions for years. Magoha knew that we had accumulated over the years and all this knowledge was put into this system.

In which other satellites are your cameras installed?
Alouf's cameras are marketed to the Eros program, which is an Israeli program of the Imagesat company that sells satellite time, the Eros A and Eros B satellites are currently orbiting in space and I hope in the future also Eros C. Another project we carried out was with KARI, the Korean space agency that purchased a camera and a TED that includes all The transmission and reception channels, as well as a compression register, for a program called COMPSAT 2. This satellite photographs with a resolution better than a meter and there is also a multispectral channel that includes 4 colors and the information is collected simultaneously in both the chromatic facet channel (black and white) and the multispectral channel.
Another project we are carrying out with foreign parties - shared by the Israeli Space Agency and the Indian Space Agency known as Tawax, a telescope in the ultraviolet field, 3 bands in the ultraviolet field that is mounted on a geostationary communication satellite and looks into outer space. The project is supposed to finish the integration with Al Op this year, be transferred to the Indian Space Agency and be launched into space in the middle of next year.

What is the status of the Venus project?
"We are in the final stages of the development plan. A camera we are developing with the French Space Agency that will be integrated into a microsatellite. The camera is supposed to collect spectral information at 12 wavelengths. The satellite itself is also a radiometer - giving a quantitative indication of the incoming radiation. It is considered one of the most advanced of its kind in the world and is said after its launch to give the most extensive spectral information, mainly related to agricultural crops on Earth for which the specific spectral lines were chosen. The "Venus" project is carried out in collaboration, the first of its kind, between the Israeli Space Agency - ISA and the French space agency CNES. The camera, designed and manufactured by Alup, is an electro-optical space camera intended for installation on a microsatellite. This scientific camera will be used for global monitoring of ecological issues, environmental quality, safety issues, promotion of "precision agriculture" and quality of water sources.
In addition, the camera will be used to monitor the fertility and carbon balance of ecosystems and crops, as well as to manage water supply for irrigated crops. The camera is based on a unique concept of the Alup company that includes advanced and innovative superspectral detectors, with 12 channels in the fields of the visible spectrum and the near infrared, which produce images with a resolution of about 5.3 meters.

The company also developed the ERMS - Earth Resources Monitoring System - Al-Op's "natural resources monitoring system" is a tiny and light camera intended for installation on microsatellites. This camera covers a field of view with a width of over 100 km with a resolution of 16 m from an altitude of 400 km. Weighing only 6.5 kg, the ERMS is an ideal tool for many mapping and monitoring applications.