Pegasus: Design of a Stratospheric Long Endurance Uav System for Remote Sensing

The PEGASUS (Policy support for European Governments by Acquisition of information from Satellite and UAV borne Sensors) project’s aim is to provide an economic way to gather high resolution data (visual, IR and thermal imagery, LIDAR, SAR, atmospheric measurements) from a high altitude platform. Because the platform will not be manned, it will be able to operate continuously for weeks or months. The paper describes the various aspects involved in the design of both platform and instruments. These include optical design, weight considerations, power consumption, data transmission, processing and archiving. The design is driven by the requirements of many remote sensing applications.