A $506 million contract was given to Raytheon by NASA to design and construct the Landsat Next Instrument Suite (LandIS), which consists of three next-generation satellite instruments plus an option for an extra instrument.
Three similar observatories in Low-Earth orbit will be used by the instrument suite to conduct Earth observation. Every six days, LandIS will gather photographs of the Earth’s surface using multispectral imaging technology to identify changes brought about by both natural and human-caused factors.
“The longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface will be maintained with the next-generation instruments for Landsat Next,” stated Sandy Brown, vice president of Mission Solutions & Payloads at Raytheon. “The imagers will improve data collection to improve awareness of water quality, crop production, and soil health with up to three times the spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution of its predecessor.”
The land usage, agricultural production, meteorological, and natural resource information will be crucially provided by data from Landsat Next and the LandIS sensors. The next generation instrument will assist in identifying trends that would have been overlooked in earlier missions because of factors like image fidelity or timing of data collecting. This will aid organizations in responding to environmental disasters, human migration, and natural disasters.
