CBERS-4 is a 1,980-kilogram (4,370 lb) spacecraft based on the Phoenix-Eye 1 satellite bus.[1] It was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, in partnership with Brazil, at a cost of US$125 million for each party. The spacecraft have a single solar array which provides power to its systems, generating 2,300 watts of electrical power, and have a design life of three years.[2]
The CBERS-4 spacecraft carries four instruments: MUXCam, a multispectral camera; PanMUX, a panchromatic imager; the Infrared Medium Resolution Scanner, or IRSCAM, and WFICAM, a wide-field imaging camera.[4] These cameras will be used to observe a swath of 120 kilometres (75 mi) of landmass at a time, enabling the satellite to scan the entire surface of the planet every 26 days, with a spatial resolution of up to 20 metres (66 ft).[5]
CBERS-4 was initially scheduled to be launched in 2015, however after the loss of CBERS-3 at launch in December 2013, China and Brazil agreed to accelerate the production of CBERS-4 by 1 year.[6] The satellite will restore the Brazilian government's ability to observe its own territory following a 4.5-year gap caused by the failure of CBERS-2B and CBERS-3.