Russian media reported that experts in the country are developing satellites that can be used to observe the Earth’s surface and to monitor the moon.
“Our experts are working in cooperation with specialists from the Roscosmos Foundation to develop the Aist-2T satellites for remote sensing of the Earth and the development of three-dimensional maps of its surface, these satellites can also be relied upon to monitor the moon,” said a statement published by the press service of the Russian company “Progress”.
The head of the Russian “Roskosmos” Corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, has said for a while that Russian experts are working on developing the Aist-2T-1 and Aist-2T-2 satellites, and these satellites are supposed to start operating in 2023.
On the other hand, the official website of the Russian state procurement indicated that “Roskosmos” is developing a group of Aist satellites that will be used for remote sensing of the Earth, and it has concluded contracts worth 2.1 billion rubles to manufacture two of these satellites.
Russia currently has many Aist satellites dedicated to sensing the Earth from a distance, such as the Aist-2D satellite, but the cameras of these satellites are currently working on Earth observation, and to monitor celestial objects, experts are forced to change the destinations of their cameras and sensors.