Sentinel-5 Instrument Structure

Almatech Contribution

Almatech has been entrusted by Airbus Defense and Space to finalize the design and to take complete responsibility for the manufacturing, process and material qualification, acceptance tests and delivery of the 4 models of the Sentinel-5 Instrument Optical Module Structure and Radiators (IOMSR).

The IOMSR is an ultra-stable structure made out of numerous sandwich panels and composites struts that has stringent thermo-mechanical stability requirements.

“Sentinel-5 is an important project for Almatech as it represents a significant contribution in the domain of super stable CFRP structures. All the interfaces for the optical benches for Earth Observation that will be mounted on this structure must be located within a sphere of 20 microns accuracy. This is challenging on a 1.2 x 1 x 1 m3 structure. We are working hand-in-hand with Airbus Defence and Space and our partners to deliver the 4 models and to guarantee all these characteristics”

Marc Lichtenberger

Project Manager

About the mission

The SENTINEL-5 mission is part of the European Earth Observation Programme “Copernicus” which is coordinated and managed by the European Commission (EC).

The Sentinel-5 mission focuses on monitoring of trace gas concentrations and aerosols in the atmosphere to support operational services covering air-quality near-real time applications, air-quality protocol monitoring and climate protocol monitoring.

The mission is a s ingle payload, the UVNS instrument which is a high resolution spectrometer system operating in the ultraviolet to shortwave infrared range with 7 different spectral bands.

The instrument will be carried on the MetOp-SG A satellite.

The Metop-SG satellite (Credit ESA)

number of 3D measurement points

number of glued parts

mass requirement