Arktika ( Arctic )

Earth Polar Region Monitoring Satellites

It has been proposed by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development early August 2010 to the Russian Federal Administration for consideration of support to launch in 2014 a constellation of six satellites for arctic polar region monitoring. Arktika is intended to monitor the Polar Regions for earth weather, climate, environment, materials and energy resources identification for the continental shelf regional nations. Additionally the system could provide needed communications for air traffic, and commercial shipping concerns of the region. It was initially developed as a proposal to the Economic Development Ministry by the Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos. The purely civil application satellite system should be internationally developed and financed to share the cost and benefits. The projected cost of such a six satellite system would be an estimated R70 million Rubles or about [$2.5 billion] in total to set up. Several nations such as Canada , Italy and several Asian nations have expressed interest in the concept project.