Sweeting talks small satellites

Tuesday, November 24. 2009
Science research

SSTL will be in attendance at this year’s Global Space Technology Forum which kicks-off on 7th December at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), and draws to a close on 9th December. Now in its second year, the GSTF is the region’s only conference and exhibition dedicated to Space Technology and is a platform for many industry experts to share their knowledge with young professionals and students who have an interest in space research and applications.

Sir Martin Sweeting
Amongst the industry experts taking to the stage is Professor Sir Martin Sweeting who will start the second day of the Global Space Technology Conference with a keynote address on ‘Innovation in Design and Technology for Small Satellites’.

The Forum has a full agenda, including the Global Space Technology Conference, Global Space Technology Exhibition, various seminars, workshops, networking events and meetings.

SSTL will be represented in the Exhibition Hall at Stand E4 where staff will be on hand to answer queries from the public and industry. SSTL staff are also taking part in many of the workshops and seminars which are a feature of this event.

More details, including the full agenda, can be found on the dedicated website for the Global Space Technology Forum.

Download a Biography for Professor Sir Martin Sweeting here: Sweetingbio.pdf

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in Science research at 13:47 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Proba-2 Goes Gas

Friday, November 13. 2009
Launch updates

The European Space Agency (ESA) Proba-2 mission has entered its 2 month commissioning period following a successful launch. SSTL’s Microsatellite Gas Propulsion System is on-board the 137kg small satellite and was integrated by the satellite’s manufacturer Verhaert Space Systems.

The Microsatellite Gas Propulsion System is based upon SSTL’s heritage xenon resistojet propulsion system. Its highly cost effective design provides an enhancement over conventional cold gas propulsion.

SSTL's Gas Propulsion System
By using the resistojet thruster to heat the exhaust gas to over 300ºC a 30% increase in efficiency is gained. The electronically controlled pressure regulation improves thrust control compared to conventional mechanically regulated propulsion systems for greater positioning control in orbit.

The warm gas propulsion system is simpler, safer and cleaner than chemical propulsion systems. This makes them ideal for launcher injection correction, constellation station keeping and acquisition and orbit height maintenance for small, low cost spacecraft.

Proba-2 is the follow-on to the highly successful Proba-1 satellite launched in 2001 that carried the Compact High Resolution Imaging Sensor (CHRIS) payload manufactured by SSTL’s Optical Payloads Group. Proba-2 will demonstrate 17 advanced satellite technologies – such as miniaturised sensors for ESA's future space probes and a highly sophisticated CCD camera with a wide angle view of about 120 degrees – while carrying a set of four science instruments to observe the Sun and study the plasma environment in orbit.

A datasheet for the SSTL Microsatellite Gas Propulsion System is available on the SSTL Website.

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in Launch updates at 08:49 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Student Moon mission begins

Friday, November 6. 2009
Lunar exploration

SSTL has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to manage a pan-European student built mission to the Moon. The European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) programme will place a spacecraft into a lunar orbit to map the lunar surface, acquiring images and other scientific data about our nearest neighbour.

Students from at least 10 universities throughout ESA's Member States and Cooperating States will learn about space science and engineering “hands on” by collaborating on the design and building of systems that could be launched into orbit around the Moon as soon as 2013.

Team ESMO!
The photo to the left shows the university academics and students that are involved with the ESMO programme, gathered outside SSTL in Guilford.

SSTL will draw upon its experience in delivering cost effective space missions and training schemes to project manage the European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) mission, supervising the academic and student teams throughout Europe to help them achieve their goal of a space-ready Moon orbiter.

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman of SSTL said, “SSTL has had its sights on the Moon for nearly a decade and ESMO combines the industrial and educational strengths of SSTL towards this exciting challenge. We have shown many times in the past that success in space can be achieved at a fraction of the cost normally considered and we expect that this exciting mission will further demonstrate that this applies as well to science missions as Earth Observation and communications.”

SSTL Lunar Expert Andy Phipps commented, “ESMO is an extremely exciting opportunity for these European students to learn about space “hands-on”, but with the practical insight and support of our training and development programmes.

“Having successfully delivered the radar payload processor to BAE Systems for NASA’s contribution to the Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, the ESMO project is just as significant for SSTL and forms the next step on our lunar roadmap – the delivery of a complete mission”, continued Phipps.

SSTL was recently down-selected by the UK government’s STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council) to lead the design phase for the MoonLITE mission, which will lead to the development and launch of a low-cost lunar orbiter carrying scientific lunar surface penetrators and a communications relay payload to the Moon in 2014.

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in Lunar exploration at 13:56 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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CHRIS celebrates 8th year onboard Proba-1

Thursday, November 5. 2009
Remote sensing

SSTL is celebrating the 8th year in orbit of the high resolution CHRIS Imager, which was launched on-board the European Space Agency’s PROBA-1 mission, in October 2001.

Chichester Harbour, UK
The Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) is a highly versatile hyperspectral system that was developed by SSTL’s Optical Payload Group. CHRIS was one of many instruments on-board the mission, with the others including a Space Radiation Environment Monitor (SREM) and a Payload Autonomous Star Sensor (PASS).

CHRIS offers the highest spatial resolution of any hyperspectral system currently in orbit and can provide simultaneous images of the Earth in 19 wavebands. This allows for many features of the images it produces to be identified and analysed.

This high resolution imager enables ESA’s Proba-1 mission to acquire detailed images of the Earth. The result – stunning images of natural and urban phenomena.

A cropped CHRIS satellite image of San Diego


Many more images can be seen on ESA’s website including that of the Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawaii and Tokyo.

CHRIS can be used for many applications, including precision farming, disaster monitoring, air quality assessment and seabed classification, and has proved so successful that it has paved the way for advanced sibling CHRIS-2, which allows for other valuable applications to be addressed, including mineralogy and pollution monitoring.

The CHRIS Imager is not the only family to have grown, as the ESA’s Proba-1 mission has now been joined in orbit by Proba-2, which was successfully launched yesterday.

In addition to SSTL's CHRIS hyperspectral imager, ESA's 8-year old PROBA-1 mission has been continuing to depend on a number of sub-systems provided by SSTL (incorporating contributions from Space Innovations Limited). These include the power system, communications system, AOCS sensors, the Data Handling System computer and the SGR-20 Space GPS receiver. All systems remain fully operational in the primary chain of the satellite and have served to enable the extended life imagery capture from the CHRIS and HRC payloads.

Posted by Robin Wolstenholme in Remote sensing at 07:37 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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