THEOS, also known as Thaichote, is an

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observation mission of

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, developed at

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Astrium SAS,

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, France. In July 2004, EADS Astrium SAS signed a contract for delivery of THEOS with GISTDA ( Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency) of

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

, Thailand. GISTDA is Thailand's leading national organization (i.e., space agency) in the field of space activities and applications. The Thai Ministry of Science and Technology funds the program. THEOS was launched from Dombarovskiy at 06:37

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on 1 October 2008, by a

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. The satellite was initially planned for a 2007 launch using the space vehicle

Rokot Rokot ( meaning ''Rumble'' or ''Boom''), also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of into a Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It was based on the UR-100N ( ...

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. The contract was however canceled when Eurockot faced a parts shortage. On 24 March 2014, THEOS captured images showing some 300 objects in close proximity to the suspected crash site of

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, in the Indian Ocean. The discovery was reported by GISTDA on 27 March 2014. The objects have not yet been identified as debris.

Benefits

THEOS was used to observe natural resources in the country by gathering information to be used by both the government and public for research and mapping. THEOS observation missions are conducted to observe agriculture sites, the production of agricultural crops, forest demolition, forest types, shrimp farms, water pollution from oil leaks, water sources, community areas, illegal farms, disaster areas, and the satellite can also be used for city planning. THEOS also reduces the cost of purchasing satellite images from other countries. Moreover, the information that is gathered from the satellite can also be sold to other countries. Thailand has also gained knowledge and technology for designing and building satellite from the French. In addition, specialists from France also travel to Thailand to teach Thai personnel every year.

Overview

THEOS was designed to be a small sized satellite with a mass of 750 kg (include equipment and fuel). It has a hexagonal shape with a height of 2.4 meters and a width of 2 meters (when the solar panel folds). It was launched into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

in 2008 to an altitude of 822 km and with an inclination of 98 degrees. It is equipped with optical imagery which can observe in the visible band to near infrared. Its mission duration is expected to be at least 5 years.

References

Earth imaging satellites Satellites of Thailand Spacecraft launched in 2008 Spacecraft launched by Dnepr rockets {{Thailand-spacecraft-stub