Celebrating a decade in space, we take a closer look at the hyperspectral imager CHRIS and how gazing at Earth from different angles and with a large number of programmable spectral bands has made all the difference for a fantastic range of scientific studies, from classifying plants to mapping the submerged shoreline.

CHRIS is the innovative hyperspectral imager payload on the European Space Agency (ESA) microsatellite Proba-1 - that started its life as a technology demonstration satellite, but turned into an Earth observation mission serving the scientific society. Its agility makes PROBA-1 different to most Earth-observing missions, with the satellite platform and payload working as one.

Guided by a star tracker, the microsatellite spins its reaction wheels to roll 25 degrees off-nadir across track directions, and 56 degrees along-track. This means that CHRIS can acquire five different views of the same target at different viewing angles. It’s these different angles that the scientists find valuable, as they can capture or avoid reflections and look at differences in colour.

“Say you’re looking at a sunflower on the ground,” explains Mike Cutter of SSTL’s Optical Payloads Group, which developed CHRIS and oversees its operation. “You’ll see a different mix of colours depending on where you’re stood, as well as the growing season and time of day: the yellow canopy, green stalk and leaves, brown soil, sun glint or shadows. The same is true when observing from orbit. This offers a way of giving much more accurate classification of vegetation and canopy covers, such as the tree species within forests.”

Continue reading "CHRIS: 10 years of science innovation"

SSTL congratulates the EU, ESA and Astrium on the successful launch of the two first in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites, which marks a critical step for the Galileo system.

Galileo is the upcoming European satellite navigation system, equivalent to the American Global Positioning System (GPS). Galileo will start operating in 2014 as a free consumer navigation service, with more specialised services to be rolled out until 2020, when it’s planned to be fully operational

Launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the base in French Guiana on Friday 21 October 07:30 local time (11:30 BST), the satellites are now in their 23,000km orbit above Earth.



Friday’s launch is the beginning of the deployment of the operational system, with two further satellites of a similar design to be launched next. A further fourteen satellites being manufactured by the OHB / SSTL team will begin launching in 2012.

To find out more on Friday’s launch, read this BBC News online article

After some tough judging, engineers at SSTL and the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) have chosen the four winning Apps to go up in space on STRaND-1, the smartphone satellite. Entering a competition through Facebook, the four winners were chosen for their Apps’ scientific benefits, their creativity, or the App’s ability to get young people enthusiastic about science and technology.

Smartphones today are incredibly powerful, and whilst they share many features with conventional satellites such as cameras and sensors, a smartphone payload also means that STRaND-1 is packed with unique features. One of the main challenges for the Space App winners was to find an innovative way to incorporate some of the smartphone features, like the camera, screen, loudspeaker or microphone, in an App designed to run in the very different environment onboard a satellite. The winning Apps are diverse in nature, but all make smart use of the smartphone - enabling STRaND-1 to do things in space that no one has done before.

As any fan of the 1979 sci-fi classic ‘Alien’ will know, ‘in space no one can hear you scream’, but has anyone ever actually tested this hypothesis? That’s exactly what the student-run team Cambridge University Spaceflight group plans to do with their winning App. Their ‘Scream in Space!’ App uses the smartphone’s display, microphone and speakers to play videos of people screaming on a youtube video and record it in space. Aiming to interest young people in scientific methodology, the public are invited to upload videos of themselves to a website, from which the most popular screams will be played on the phone when the satellite is in orbit. Visitors to the website will later be able to view (and maybe hear!?) the results of this experiment.

Continue reading "SpaceApp winners worlds apart but orbit together"

Following weeks of rigorous launch preparations, both NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X satellites took off at 7:12 GMT on 17th August and are now in orbit and acquiring their first imagery. We’re looking into how it all went and what’s happening next.

Days before launch all seven satellites sharing the launch were integrated and the space head module assembled. The assembly was then rolled out to the rocket silo where Russian Strategic Missile Forces were waiting for the final silo operations. Besides the mission launch team, a group from SSTL and Nigerian delegates, including SSTL Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting and NASRDA head, Dr S.O Mohammed, were onsite in Yasny for the launch. This video shows the take off from the Yasny launch base.

The launch went according to plan, and after the separation from the launch vehicle was confirmed, ground stations in Abuja and Guildford established contact with NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X respectively. This fantastic animation shows the launch sequence, and how the satellites are detached in the correct order for their intended orbits.

Continue reading "NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X orbiting Earth"