Small Satellite Landscape: Esa Earth Observation With A Focus On Optical Missions

ESA Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes (ESA-EOP) have seized the opportunity to support the development of small and nano-satellites to complement the EOP scientific and application-driven flagship missions. These developments include new science driven missions and constellations which enable a significant increase in temporal resolution leading to new applications.This paper presents an overview of the NewSpace paradigm, describes the overall ESA-EOP small mission strategy and provides a brief insight into some of the small satellites being developed at ESA across three programmatic lines: Scout Missions, Phi-sat Missions and the Investing in Industrial Innovation (InCubed) Programme. The paper focuses on optical missions.