Two cameras, one job
OLI-2 photographs land in visible and near-infrared light; TIRS-2 maps its heat. Everything else on the spacecraft exists to keep those two instruments powered, cold, pointed and connected.
BUILD · SATELLITES · LANDSAT 9
Landsat 9
A self-powered, self-cooled, self-steadying camera — photographing the same strip of Earth the same way, again and again, continuing a record that reaches back to 1972.
This is the real satellite, part by part. Rotate it, then pull the Separate slider to lift off the sun-tracking solar wing, the two cameras, and the radiators. Switch to Materials to see the gold thermal blankets against the aluminium bus, X-ray to find the propellant tank — then cut the cryocooler and watch the thermal camera lose its sight.
POWERING UP THE SATELLITE…
Separate it, inspect any part, then break it — every subsystem exists to keep two cameras powered, cold, pointed and heard.
Why it's built this way
The heat camera must be cold
A thermal sensor can only see heat if it is far colder than what it looks at, so TIRS-2 rides its own cryocooler and radiator. Without them it is blinded by its own warmth.
The same track, for years
To compare images across decades, Landsat 9 must re-photograph the same ground on the same schedule — so it holds a precise sun-synchronous orbit with small hydrazine thruster nudges.
Sources: USGS — Landsat 9; NASA Science — Landsat 9 Mission Details; Northrop Grumman — Landsat 9 (LEOStar-3).
Now track the real fleet.
You've built one — now watch ~11,000 real satellites orbit Earth live in 3D.
