This week, the European Space Agency awarded DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) a contract to provide satellite imagery of 38 countries in Europe. Remote sensing will be used to monitor Europe’s environment and land use, including natural resources such as agricultural land and forests. High resolution DMC satellite images will provide valuable information for the European Global Monitoring for Environment & Security (GMES) services and European scientists.

It is difficult to achieve cloud free coverage of Europe in a single year, but DMCii coordinates a constellation (DMC) of 4 satellites carrying the same sensors, which can dramatically speed up the process when compared to a single satellite operating in isolation.

Paul Stephens, DMCii reflected on the constellation approach, “This campaign demonstrates the value of constellations for imaging large areas in a short time. With several new DMC satellites launching in 2008 and 2009 we plan to start providing multi-season imaging services in Europe and elsewhere to meet the operational needs of GMES services. ”

Images are acquired within dates specified by each of the 38 countries, and delivered as precisely positioned data in each national map projection. DMCii started to acquire high resolution imagery in April ‘07 and will complete the campaign in October.

SSTL achievements have been recognised in by three prestigious awards from the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). The RAeS awards are considered the most prestigious and long-standing awards in global aerospace honouring achievement, innovation and excellence

The team responsible for the building and delivery of the Galileo test satellite, GIOVE-A, received the Team Silver Award. This was accompanied by the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award for an exceptional contribution to space, demonstrating first class risk and project management skills in designing and placing into orbit a complex, yet cost-effective satellite. Dr Mike Cutter was presented with the Society's Bronze Award for work of merit in the design, manufacture and exploitation in space of the CHRIS hyper-spectral camera.

SSTL was awarded the GIOVE-A contract in the summer of 2003 with a strict schedule to launch the satellite before the end of 2005. As the largest and most complex satellite SSTL had ever developed, the GIOVE-A project brought together a large multi-disciplinary team of up to 70 people to support development.

A core team of 10-20 people was responsible for the majority of the project co-ordination, system and payload engineering to deliver GIOVE-A to schedule. This core team was also essential to subsequent key phases of the mission such as the launch, commissioning and in-orbit test campaigns. Their understanding of GIOVE-A ensured that these critical activities were performed safely and efficiently, leading to the successful achievement of the main mission objectives.

CHRIS is the highest resolution hyper-spectral camera ever to be flown in space, made possible by BNSC funding. The design is particularly light in weight (14kg) and thrifty in its use of electrical power (8W), enabling it to be flown on a small satellite platform. CHRIS has been operational in space since the launch of PROBA in October 2001 and is in constant demand by more than 80 scientific groups across Europe and North America, Australia and China who use the flexible hyper-spectral modes of the instrument to analyse how various objects, materials and scenes can be analysed from orbit. Such research underpins important advances in remote sensing for environmental, farming, land use planning, water management and many other applications.

It is not the first time that the achievements of SSTL staff have been recognised by the RAeS. In 1998 Dr Marc Fouquet was presented with the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award for a significant contribution to space as the principle designer of imaging systems for Earth observation and star tracking.

The Royal Aeronautical Society has been honouring outstanding achievers in the global aerospace industry since 1908, when Wilbur and Orville Wright came to London to receive the Society’s first two Gold Medals. In the years that have followed, honouring world aerospace achievers has become a permanent tradition of the Society. The Society’s Awards Programme rewards individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to aerospace, whether for a single outstanding contribution or achievement, a major technical innovation, for exceptional leadership, long and valued service, or for work that will further advance aerospace.

As part of Open University's "James May's 20th Century" television program, the Top Gear presenter visited Mission Control in Guildford. In the program James took a journey through the 20th century by "trying out for himself some of the most surprising and influential technological advances of the past hundred years".

James asked SSTL if he could 'borrow' a satellite to take a photograph of the Earth. Well, an area the size of a tennis court to be precise. A BBC production team, with the help of SSTL staff, spread white sheets on land adjacent to the small satellite manufacturer's headquarters in Guildford, carefully designed to represent a "Space Invader" alien when viewed from above. SSTL's operations team then programmed a series of images which did indeed capture the alien.

The satellite tasked for the image was TopSat. Weighing just 90kg, TopSat was designed and built by SSTL for UK-customer, QinetiQ. The 2.5m imaging system was designed and built by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The satellite, which was launched in October 2005, orbits 700km above the Earth and was designed as a technology demonstrator Earth observation mission for the UK Ministry of Defence.

SSTL has got a good mention in the French press this week, related to changing the economics of space.

Small satellites such as GIOVE-A, the first satellite of the ambitious Galileo project can be built to affordable budgets by SSTL to short and clearly defines timescales.

Paraphrasing (corrections welcome):

ESA has made a decision to source equipment from small suppliers as their experience with SSTL has proved this can be done more efficiently and at a lesser cost.

And for our French visitors here's an abstract:

L'Agence spatiale européenne mise sur les petits industriels pour faciliter ses projets innovants. Les gros industriels du secteur comme EADS ou Alcatel ont du souci à se faire. Plusieurs exemples récents ont convaincu l'agence que de nouveaux entrants comme le suédois SSC, l'allemand OHB, le belge Verhaert, le britannique Qinetiq ou l'espagnol Casa sont capables de fournir des satellites ou des équipements avec bien plus de réactivité et pour des coûts jusqu'à 2 fois moins chers. L'ESA a déjà appliqué cette stratégie pour les démonstrateurs du programme Galileo en choisissant la « jeune pousse » de l'université du Surrey, la Surrey Satellite Technology Limited.

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