Earlier this week, Jean-Jacques Dordain, the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), officially opened SSTL’s new Kepler building. The Director General unveiled a commemorative plaque with David Willetts, the Universities and Science Minister, at an event attended by guests from the UK and European space sectors.

The Director General was taken on a tour of the building by SSTL’s CEO Matt Perkins and Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting. On their rounds they viewed satellites currently under construction in the Kepler building, including TechDemoSat-1, a medium resolution spacecraft for Kazakhstan and ADS-1B, an SSTL-100 platform for COM DEV’s exactEarth constellation which is due to be launched later this year.


The Director General was also shown the 14 European GNSS payloads being built in a specially designed secure area within the 40,000 sqft facility which is co-located with SSTL’s HQ in Surrey.

The Kepler building’s world-class testing halls and state of the art facilities will provide SSTL with greater capacity to build whole constellations at one time and also work on larger spacecraft than previously, such as the geostationary telecommunications satellite currently being developed under ARTES funding from ESA.


David Willetts welcomed the new facility, commenting:

"The continued success of SSTL is a clear sign that our space industry is thriving. This impressive, high-tech new facility is already manufacturing some of the most advanced satellites in the world, boosting growth and helping the UK stay ahead of the game in space technology."

We are currently experiencing the effects of a solar storm. Since Monday morning, high-energy particles have been hurtling towards Earth from the Sun. This is the result of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME); a sudden burst of electromagnetic energy and particles released into space from the Sun’s atmosphere.

This Youtube video shows a large solar eruption that occurred in June, 2011:



In space, CME particles can collide with crucial electronics onboard a satellite, disrupting its systems. This is of particular concern in a region centred over a point close to the Falkland Islands, known as the South Atlantic Anomaly, where the Earth’s inner radiation belt comes closer to our planet’s surface. Normally satellites experience much higher levels of radiation when travelling through this region, and these effects will be exacerbated during a solar storm.

Interference with satellite signal transmissions can potentially affect our satellite-dependent communications and TV. Disruptions can also affect satellite navigation resulting in positional errors of up to tens of metres – with significant consequences for aircraft navigation and landing in particular.

Another concern for aircrews is the enhanced radiation experienced during solar storms at high altitude and at the poles of the earth. Although this is unlikely to cause permanent harm, airlines often re-route aircraft to avoid exposure.

The effects of this solar storm have even been felt here in Britain. Increased solar activity enhances the auroral oval in both the northern and southern hemispheres meaning that people in the north of the UK were able to witness the spectacular Northern Lights over the last few nights.



In severe cases very large CMEs can induce electrical fluctuations at ground level with the potential to blow out transformers in power grids, as happened in the 1989 Quebec blackout.

There’s little need to worry this time round though. This storm is likely to be only moderate as the magnetic polarity of the plasma is co-aligned with the Earth’s magnetic field. Severe solar storm effects only occur when it is cross-aligned.

Evidently, in an increasingly technological world, space weather is a serious matter. As a result, SSTL and the UK government are keen to monitor it. TechDemoSat-1 which is currently under construction in SSTL’s new Kepler facility, will carry a number of payloads collectively known as The Space Environment Suite to record radiation and ion levels. This suite will provide us with more comprehensive measurements and it is increasingly likely that such payloads will be carried on all missions in the future.

DMCii has acquired an image of the recent flooding in Brazil. Torrential rains and a broken dam caused the Paraiba do Sul river to burst its banks close to the coastal town of Atafona, Rio de Janiero. The level of the River reached 10.9m, 3 metres higher than normal meaning over 4,000 people had to be evacuated from the immediate area. As reported by the Rio Times, the nearby town of Três Vendas was so badly affected that it was patrolled by city guards to prevent looting and the power was cut to prevent short circuits occurring.



This is one of many flooding incidents in south-east Brazil with total evacuation numbers now reaching 35,000. The country often encounters problems with extreme weather and last year around 1,000 people were killed during the rainy season.

If you’re interested in seeing more remarkable images captured by DMCii please visit DMCii’s photostream on Flickr.

The UK’s space technology demonstration satellite, TechDemoSat-1, is one step closer to completion. SSTL has received several of the eight payloads that will fly on the pioneering small satellite and the project team is busy integrating them.

TechDemoSat-1, which is roughly the same size as a dishwasher, will trial new space technologies in orbit giving them much sought after flight time and encouraging the commercialisation of British technologies.



Announced before Christmas, the first payload to be integrated is the Mullard Space Science Laboratory’s Charged Particle Spectrometer (ChaPS) that will detect electrons and ions simultaneously. ChaPS is a miniaturised instrument that offers a feasible alternative for future missions in which mass and power are at a premium.

Since ChaPS, SSTL has also taken delivery of some of the other payloads:

• MuREM: a miniaturised payload for radiation alarm and diagnostics that could enhance the safety of future space missions, developed by the nearby Surrey Space Centre.


• CMS: a low cost modular infrared remote sensing radiometer designed by Oxford University’s Planetary Group and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).


• CubeSAT AOCS: a complete 3-axes attitude determination and control subsystem designed for Cubesats, supplied by SSBV.

SSTL also successfully completed early integration activities with the LUCID payload in December. This payload was developed by sixth form students to characterise the energy, type, intensity and directionality of high-energy particles and early tests have gone well. Full integration of LUCID will take place shortly after some final software development. The final payload, SSTL’s own earth observation payload to measure the state of the ocean, will progress to assembly, integration and test with the satellite over the next few weeks.

Funded by the Technology Strategy Board and South East Economic Development Agency (SEEDA), TechDemoSat-1 is the first-ever collaborative UK Space Agency mission. As reported by the BBC last week, TechDemoSat-1 is part of a broader programme to promote the UK’s skills and expertise as a high-tech engineering and services provider in space.

The payloads are being tested and integrated in SSTL’s new Kepler building in preparation for a launch in late 2012 or early 2013.

We hope you enjoyed the first half of our year in review yesterday, but there’s more to cover and it is the season for giving after all…

In October the SSTL-50, SSTL’s new microsatellite platform, landed at The International Astronomical Congress (IAC) in Cape Town, South Africa. The SSTL-50 is a highly cost-effective satellite design that can be built and launched in just 12 months. Its small size also means that two SSTL-50’s can fit facing each other in a space head module – so double the amount of satellites can be launched in one go. It doesn’t just redefine cost effective space (again), but its dual-mode design also offers scientific missions state-of-the-art innovation with the piece of mind of SSTL’s heritage platform avionics.



UoSat-1 also celebrated its 30th anniversary during the Cape Town gathering. Very close to the hearts of many at SSTL (and apparently Evan Davis’ father) UoSAT-1 was the blueprint for all future SSTL missions, pioneering small cost-effective satellite designs that capitalised on the microcomputer revolution. SSTL was later founded by Sir Martin Sweeting based on the success of UoSAT-1 and its successors.

Exciting new technology, NovaSAR, was also launched at the IAC. NovaSAR uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that allows satellites to capture images in all conditions because they can see through clouds and at night. The UK government announced an investment of £21 million to support the first satellite, planting the seed for a new high-tech service industry in the UK built upon the provision of low-cost radar.

October also saw the successful launch of two first in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites that will become part of the fully-fledged European GNSS constellation. SSTL is currently building the first 14 payloads for what will become Europe’s equivalent to the American Global Positioning System (GPS). The Constellation will begin operation in 2014 as a free consumer navigation service once the remaining satellites are launched.



Alongside building satellites for its customers, SSTL remains as passionate about innovation as ever. One recent project has brought together researchers at the Surrey Space Centre and passionate SSTL engineers during lunch breaks to develop STRaND-1, a 30cm long nanosatellite which is powered by a common smartphone. During the summer the STRaND-1 team launched a SpaceApp Facebook competition that offered entrants the chance to run their App on the satellite’s Google Nexus One smartphone in orbit.

In the spirit of the mission, the SpaceApp winners were selected based upon their creativity, scientific benefit and ability to inspire young people. Winning Apps included iTesa which will record the magnitude of the magnetic field around the phone during orbit, and “Scream in Space” which will test the tagline from Ridley Scott’s film Alien 'in space no-one can hear you scream’ by playing videos and using the smartphone's microphone. One App even promises Postcards from space – well have you had one before? You can follow STRaND-1 and the SpaceApp competition winners on Twitter @SurreyNanosats and Facebook www.facebook.com/nanosats

It’s not just the number of satellites that is increasing in 2011: SSTL itself has grown dramatically. This year an incredible 116 staff joined, bringing total numbers to 447.

We would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Stay tuned to find out more about space, the universe and everything in 2012. Don’t want to miss a blog? Subscribe here.

In 2011 Europe has launched its first satellites into its future GNSS constellation, America has found Earth-like planet Kepler-22b while China has dominated space news, and Russia’s stricken Phobos-Grunt has brought the year to a close.

Following the formation of the UK Space Agency in 2010, the UK has also had a busy year – especially here at SSTL. We have seen important projects reach major milestones, celebrated anniversaries, and unveiled some very exciting new space technologies to the world.

In February, the Disaster Monitoring Constellation celebrated its 10th birthday. This unique international collaboration was set up to gather and distribute images of disaster zones anywhere in the world, and assisted disaster relief during Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami and many other disasters. SSTL’s remote sensing subsidiary, DMCii, also led the International Charter of Space and Major Disasters for 6 months from May to November, taking the reins as the world reeled from the devastation caused by the earthquake in Japan. Servicing its members’ national programmes, disaster relief and commercial imaging campaigns, the constellation has continued to grow this year with the launch of two Nigerian satellites.



NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X were launched from Yasny, Russia on the 17th August. They are the tangible outcome of a comprehensive programme that included the training of some 26 Nigerian engineers – in fact, NigeriaSat-X was the first satellite to be built by Nigerians for Nigeria. NigeriaSat-2 was the first satellite using the new SSTL-300 platform to be launched, further pushing the price/performance boundaries for small observation satellites with its unrivalled agility. Apart from super-clear high resolution imaging NigeriaSat-2 can uses its off-pointing to acquire stereoscopic images and build a 3D picture to map terrain. Nigeria has big plans for its new satellite, from monthly crop monitoring for increased food security, and keeping tabs on the country’s rapid urban growth.

In June, DMCii signed an impressive £110 million deal with Beijing-based company 21AT during the Chinese premier’s visit to the UK to lease the imaging capacity of three high-resolution satellites for applications such as disaster response and urban planning. The SSTL-built satellites, which are based upon the SSTL-300 platform but carry a higher resolution 1m imaging payload, will form a constellation named DMC3. The deal addresses growing demand for images from the small imaging satellite Beijing-1 which was built by SSTL and launched for 21AT in 2005.

2011 also marked the opening of SSTL’s new £10 million world-class technical facility, The Kepler Building, providing assembly, testing and integration of satellite platforms and payloads. Co-located with SSTL’s headquarters, this secure building, with its state-of-the-art cleanrooms, laboratories and testing facilities, provides enhanced abilities to design, build, and test spacecraft for customers around the world in one place – and looks good in the process!



TechDemoSat-1 is one of the projects underway in Kepler. A pioneering small satellite showcasing some of UK industry’s most promising space technologies, it will give participating academia and companies early flight heritage – the lack of which has previously been a barrier to market acceptance. We’re expecting some TechDemoSat-1 updates very soon so watch this space!



It’s been such a busy year for SSTL, you’ll have to tune in tomorrow for the second half of SSTL’s Year in Review. In the meanwhile, why not treat yourself this Christmas and subscribe to Space Blog by opening your present above and make sure you don’t miss it (or any other blog) again!

Are you sitting on an Android App that would work in space? Working in their lunch breaks and spare time, a team of SSTL engineers and researchers from the University of Surrey has built STRaND-1, the first satellite being powered by a smartphone. Mobile phones are getting more and more advanced and are today incredibly powerful. With components such as sensors, video cameras, GPS systems and Wi-Fi radios, smartphones have many similarities to Earth observation satellites and potentially a lot to offer as a payload.




The STRaND-1 team is now offering the opportunity for the UK public to take part in the mission through a contest, which will allow the winner to develop an Android App to be used on the mobile phone in space. The contest is now open on Facebook and the STRaND-1 team will choose the four most innovative, inspirational and fun App ideas. The winner will also be able to see their App run in space from the mission control centre at SSTL’s headquarters in Guildford.

Project Manager at SSTL, Shaun Kenyon said: "The STRaND project could lead the way to a new era of hardware and software testing for Surrey. We're almost ready to integrate all of the subsystems - a very exciting time to be involved in such influential work. Tell us what you'd like to do via our Facebook page, and what you need to achieve it, so that we can ensure the best apps are supported on STRaND"

STRaND-1 (Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Development) is built as a ‘CubeSat’ measuring 34cm x 10cm x 10cm, and weighs about 4kg. The Space App contestants will be able to make use of new technologies such as a new type of radio receiver, as well as GPS positioning, a 5MP camera, 3-axis accelerometers, 1GHz processor and a microphone. App ideas and entrants are lining up, giving the team a challenging time ahead in choosing the winners.

To find out more and to enter the competition, visit www.facebook.com/nanosats

For the latest updates and discussions around the competition, follow @SurreyNanosats on Twitter.

Broadcast journalist Evan Davis is a busy man of many hats. When he’s not on Radio 4’s Today Programme he can be spotted presenting Dragon’s Den or Made In Britain – both of which share his passion for British entrepreneurism and innovation. It therefore comes as no surprise that the Open University has appointed Evan Visiting Professor of the Public Understanding of Business, where he recently delivered his first public lecture, Reflections on the British Economy.



Made in Britain viewers’ eyes were opened to a hidden world of British high-tech manufacturing and engineering that Britain is actually very good at – banishing the view that nothing is made in Britain anymore. It was a refreshing look at the positives amidst the UK PLC’s current economic woes. Evan’s lecture on 1st November follows same theme high-tech British manufacturing in the international arena, focusing specifically on three key areas:

• the continuing contribution of manufacturing.


• the UK’s comparative advantage in intellectual property


• the threats from emerging economies as they develop tradable services.

SSTL’s Stephen Gibson enjoyed his lecture, but little did he know that when he posed a question that Evan Davis would share a “soft spot” for SSTL. It turns out his father was not only an electronic engineer at the University of Surrey, but moreover the Phd supervisor to SSTL founder Sir Martin Sweeting as he designed the first low cost small satellites that our University spin-out has pioneered for the last 25 years. As a teenager, Evan even saw the original UoSAT in the University of Surrey and he is said to be a keen follower of SSTL’s progress.

You can watch Evan’s lecture on the Open University website, and followers who are interested can also hear Evan’s response – and revelations! – in this video from the Q&A session.

UK- DMC- 1, one of the first generation Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellites, is to be retired from service after over 8 years in orbit. UK-DMC-1, was launched on 27th September 2003 with fellow Constellation satellites NigeriaSat-1 and BILSAT-1 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on board a Kosmos 3-M rocket. It has exceeded its original 5-year design lifetime by over 50% with an impressive 8 years and 1 month of operation. UK-DMC-1’s imaging workload has now passed to UK-DMC2 and the new generation of DMC satellites, providing data continuity for DMCii’s customers.

UK-DMC-1 was part of the first-ever microsatellite Earth Observation constellation, which introduced remarkable EO abilities for both national and international benefit. The constellation is the work of a pioneering international co-operation consortium led by SSTL and made up of six countries: Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey, Spain and the United Kingdom.



In addition to UK-DMC-1’s remote sensing capability, the SSTL100 based satellite also carried several experimental payloads that have proved groundbreaking in themselves. The Cisco router in Low Earth Orbit (CLEO) was a joint project between NASA Glenn Research Center, SSTL and Cisco Systems. It tested delay-tolerant networking in space and led the way for developments towards an interplanetary Internet system.

The GPS Reflectometry experiment on UK-DMC-1 was the first dedicated experiment to demonstrate the viability of using reflected GPS signals from space to measure geophysical parameters, such as ocean weather. For the first time, spaceborne signals were received by the satellite from reflections off sea, ice, snow and land and a follow-on instrument will be flying on TechDemoSat-1. UK-DMC-1’s Resistojet technology was also the first of its kind. This water-based propulsion system proved to be both an efficient and low cost alternative to the use of hazardous propellants which require infrastructure and can cause complications at high pressures.

UK-DMC-1 retired gracefully; like all recent SSTL missions it was prepared for its ‘End of Mission’ as a precautionary measure to minimize space debris. This process began in September 2010 and involved using up its remaining propellant to passivate the satellite, and also lowering the orbit to reduce its remaining time in space before burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. When this work was completed the satellite continued to be fully operational, continuing to relay image data down to SSTL’s groundstation.

Why retire now? Well, the satellite’s battery ages over the mission lifetime and has now reached a point, well beyond its original mission design life, where it is unable to provide enough power to support full payload operations. With this in mind, the SSTL Spacecraft Operations Team have suspended the UK-DMC-1 workload, and the satellite is now only monitored periodically from SSTL Mission Control in Guildford.

A group of students from Royal Grammar School, Guildford is exploring the possibilities of a scientific phenomenon to evaluate its potential for propelling a Tumbleweed Rover through the hills and valleys of Martian terrain.

The project is SSTL’s contribution to this year’s Engineering Education Scheme. EES is an annual event run by The Engineering Development Trust, the largest provider of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) enrichment activities for British young people. The EES links teams of Year 12 pupils with local companies to provide students with first-hand experience in science, engineering and technology that will enable them to make informed decisions about their future.

This isn’t the first time SSTL has sponsored the scheme. Two years ago SSTL supported a team from Farnborough college on a study to "Investigate possible ways of detecting earthquake precursor signals using satellites, to help us move from disaster monitoring to disaster mitigation". The constructive results of the study have been fed into the Mission Concepts team that evaluates new ideas in the innovation underbelly of SSTL.


This year, Sahand Ghanoun from the Flight Software Team is mentoring four students from Royal Grammar School, Guildford to study a "Low cost propulsion system utilising the Crookes radiometer effect". Their study will look into the possibility of using the Crookes radiometer effect as a supplementary source of propulsion for the NASA Tumbleweed Rover.

The spherical Tumbleweed Rovers could be used to explore the valleys of Mars that wheeled probes are unable to reach, relying on the Martian wind to move them around, see this video. SSTL’s Mission Concepts would like to know if the Crookes radiometer effect could provide an alternative means of propulsion when the Martian wind is insufficient to move the Rovers.


The Crookes Radiometer Effect can be observed when metal vanes in a partial vacuum (like the Martian atmosphere) move when exposed to light. The vanes are painted white on one side and black on the other. When exposed to light or infrared radiation the vanes move because the black side of the vane becomes hotter than the white and transfers more heat energy (and therefore, kinetic energy) to the air molecules behind the vane resulting in a new torque in that direction. In addition, another force is exerted by the flow of the gas molecules from the cooler side to the hotter side in an effect known as thermal transpiration.

A combination of wind power and the photo-thermally induced principle on which the Crookes radiometer works would cost less than solar panel powered propulsion and might make the tumbleweed rover concept viable in a shorter timeframe.

The project kicked off on Friday, 4th November, when Sahand presented to the four RGS students and their teachers and gave them a tour of SSTL facilities. The programme will run until April 2012 when the team will show off their work and a report to a team of assessors.

DMCii has acquired images of flooding in both El Salvador and Ghana - just two of the many floods that have taken place recently worldwide.

El Salvador in South America was hit by a tropical depression at the end of October. Torrential rains resulted in rockslides, landslides and widespread destruction of crops and homes. Water levels rose by a reported 3m and it is said that up 10% of the country was flooded. The aftermath of this extreme weather can be seen in this image taken by UK-DMC-2 on the 21st October.


Accra in Ghana also experienced heavy rains that started on the 25th October. The nation’s capital is a low-lying area and prone to flooding. However it is unusual in October as the rainy season is June to August in Ghana. The flooding has led to sanitation fears and massive disruption of transport links.


If you’re interested in seeing more remarkable images from UK-DMC-2 please visit DMCii’s photostream on Flickr. All images are acquired by UK-DMC-2 © DMCii, 2011. All rights reserved

A Channel 4 news report on Sunday 9th October 2011 covered SSTL’s work towards the creation of an Interplanetary Internet (IPN) system that could change the way space exploration is conducted.

The development of the Internet originally aimed to connect the world, now one of its founders, Vint Cerf (Google Chief Internet Evangelist) is pioneering something much bigger: a network whose reach could extend further than our solar system and potentially allow transfer of data to and from spacecraft travelling to stars 30 trillion miles, or 4 light years, away.

Our terrestrial Internet requires few resends between nodes and data can be quickly resent end-to-end. This works well on Earth where everyone is significantly less than a light second apart and where a constant connection can be provided. However, the bigger the distances involved in space travel, the longer the data takes and the harder it is to guarantee a connection as it can be blocked by the sun and planets. This means that there can be delays of hours, or even days in the transfer of data.

The use of delay tolerant networking rectifies this. Under this system, each node stores data until it can be forwarded to the next node allowing greater use of available contact periods, greater accuracy in the transfer of data, and shorter overall delays in data delivery.

In SSTL’s current work, delay tolerant networking could be used to ensure maximum contact between Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and Earth. In constellations of satellites, each individual acts as a node, and can communicate with each other using Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs) to send data via the quickest route. Data might be sent to a geostationary satellite that has contact with a ground station, providing more opportunities to get data downlinked. This system is faster and much more cost effective if cost is considered as data per pound or euro - it’s more science for your money. Also, the network can be fully automated, reducing operation costs.

Using delay tolerant networking to send and receive data reliably, and as soon as possible, could be particularly useful for defence and disaster monitoring, by reducing the delay between the satellite acquiring data and then waiting for its orbit to bring it within contact with its groundstation so that the data can be downlinked.



In 2003, CLEO, a Cisco router on a LEO satellite was launched onboard SSTL’s UK–DMC-1 satellite and is still in use after eight years in orbit. Working together and using Internet technology to prototype the future Interplanetary Internet, NASA Glenn Research Center, SSTL and Cisco Systems were the first to evaluate the delay-tolerant networking bundle protocol in space. CLEO was a prototype for the concept of IPN, and was followed by the launch of Intelsat’s IRIS geostationary satellite in 2009.

Despite discussions as early as 1998, IPN is only now becoming a reality. A prototype node is already on the International Space Station and an interplanetary Internet system could potentially be in operation for interplanetary exploration by 2018/2020.

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"

Cloud cover is one of the main challenges of satellite imaging, because there’s always a risk that the view of an area is disrupted. This is especially true when an area needs to be imaged at regular intervals to detect changes, or when it needs to be imaged rapidly, for example in the event of a disaster. With this in mind, engineers at SSTL have developed a new innovative Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system called NovaSAR-S which was unveiled this week at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Cape Town.



Rather than follow a traditional development process, the SSTL approach was to design a baseline mission which addressed the question “what imaging performance can we achieve with a spacecraft that can be built and operated at low cost, and is compatible with low cost launches?”

NovaSAR-S complements much larger, complex and power-hungry radar satellites with a small and lower priced mission that delivers imagery in all weather during both day and night. One of the biggest technical challenges was managing energy use onboard, which was solved in part by using new highly efficient S-band solid-state amplifier technology. By combining a modified SSTL-300 platform (used by NigeriaSat-2 satellite) with an innovative S-band SAR payload, that was developed in partnership with Astrium, NovaSAR-S offers radar capability for the cost of an earth observation satellite – a capability otherwise not considered economically possible.

So what’s SAR good at?

Imaging through clouds means that NovaSAR is ideal for providing rapid-response imagery for disaster relief operations and aid disaster assessment, for example in the event of a flooding.

Its cloud-piercing imaging also offers new possibilities for crop monitoring, mapping agricultural land and assessing crop condition, as these applications demand imaging on a strictly regular basis – come rain or shine.

Many of the world's forests are found in tropical areas where cloud cover is dominant, which means that NovaSAR also is well suited for detailed forestry assessments.

This baseline SAR is also ideally suited to maritime and coastal applications such as ship and oil spill monitoring, or detecting shifts in ice formations and other environmental phenomena.

Of course, it doesn’t stop there – and we’re looking forward to exploring the possibilities of this new technology. In this recent article on BBC News online, SSTL’s head of Earth observation, Luis Gomes said: "It's nice to have the technology but we want people to engage in terms of services - to come up with uses for this sort of data for the scientific community and commercial world. These discussions are on-going."

Nigeriasat-1 and UK-DMC-1, part of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation coordinated by DMCii, have this week reached their 8th operational year in orbit. Launched on September the 27th 2003 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on board a Kosmos 3-M rocket, Nigeriasat-1 and UK-DMC-1 have been providing imagery to their respective operators, NASRDA in Abuja, Nigeria and SSTL in Guildford, Surrey for the last 8 years.



In addition to its remote sensing payload, UK-DMC-1 also carries three experimental payloads which have in their own ways proven to be revolutionary: The Cisco router in Low Earth Orbit (CLEO) was a pioneering implemention of an internet link in space. Working together, NASA Glenn Research Center, SSTL and Cisco Systems used UK-DMC-1 to demonstrate a prototype of the future Interplanetary Internet - being the first to evaluate the delay-tolerant networking bundle protocol in space.

The GPS Reflectometry experiment was the first dedicated experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using GPS and GNSS reflections off the surface of the Earth to measure geophysical parameters, such as the roughness of the ocean surface. For the first time, spaceborne reflections were received from reflections off sea, ice, snow and land. A follow-on instrument has recently been designed and will be flying on TechDemoSat-1. The water Resistojet experiment was the first flight of this kind of technology. Water based propulsion avoids the complications and infrastructure required in using hazardous propellants at high pressures, and results in a useful level of thrust and efficiency at a very low cost.

SSTL prepares all its missions for End of Mission as a precautionary measure. UK-DMC-1 initiated its preparations in September 2010 and Nigeriasat-1 in June this year, which meant using up the remaining propellant to passivate the satellites. Using up the propellant also lowers the orbit and is an efficient way of reducing their remaining time in orbit. Since this work was completed, both satellites have continued their respective missions and will continue to provide imagery until End of Mission. The first satellite in the constellation Alsat-1, which was built by SSTL for the Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) and launched in 2002, completed its mission last year having exceeded its original 5-year design lifetime by 50% to a remarkable 7 years and 9 months.

Satellite navigation (GNSS) experts from SSTL are contributing remote sensing and satellite know-how to a pioneering UK-led project that aims to improve forecasting of adverse weather conditions at sea.

Using satellite data to measure ocean roughness has been an area of interest for SSTL since an experimental GNSS receiver payload was launched onboard its UK-DMC satellite. During the past few years, the GNSS receivers team has investigated the use of GNSS reflectometry – the use of reflected navigation signals from space to characterise ocean weather – with promising results, and produced a prototype instrument in collaboration with partners in the UK that will be developed into a payload for the TechDemoSat-1 technology demonstration satellite.



Smarter shipping
In addition to shipping, many marine operations such as offshore oil platforms and renewable energy projects depend on high quality information on sea-state (wave height, period, direction, steepness) for economic and safety decision making. However, the information currently available is based on atmospheric/ocean models and lacks sufficient temporal and spatial resolution.

Martin Unwin, Principal Engineer commented,

Wave conditions are always changing and can vary tremendously over just 100km, or over a period of two hours. This also makes modelling and forecasting very difficult, so the most immediate use of this data is more likely to be what we call ‘nowcasting’ – assessing current conditions thoroughly before commencing an operation.

Another problem with conventional methods is that the use of buoys provides good information around the coast and shipping lanes, but is simply not economical nor practical for charting the vast oceans of Earth. This is one area where satellites, with their global view, are ideally equipped.

All hands on deck
Recognising the opportunity for an improved system, the UK’s Technology Strategy Board has provided co-funding for the WaveSentry project. WaveSentry will address shortcomings on two fronts:

• By exploiting new data sources that include SSTL’s novel satellite remote measurements of wave steepness.


• By integrating data from all sources in a single system (including real-time buoy and ship data).

This multi-disciplinary project will bring together partners from all areas to develop and apply techniques to substantially enhance the integration of diverse data sources to offer improved data about adverse sea-states to a number of markets. SSTL and its partner National Oceanographic Centre, Southampton, are investigating the potential for spaceborne GNSS Reflectometry measurements to contribute towards knowledge of sea state in combination with other data sources.

You can keep up to date with the WaveSentry project on the the Marine Southeast website.

The annual UK Space Conference was recently held at Warwick University and SSTL founder Sir Martin Sweeting attended the event as one of the speakers. The UK Space Conference was formally opened by The Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science, and attracted leading figures from Europe’s space sector, providing an opportunity for an exchange of information between government, industry and the research community.

The UK Space Conference had an extra focus on key innovations and research outputs to help shape the space sector, highlighting the connections between the space sector and other sectors in the UK economy. As one of the speakers at the Innovation – Science, Business, Technology session, Sir Martin Sweeting highlighted the innovation and technological advances in small satellites and how these can change the economics of the space sector.

Interviewed at the conference, Sir Martin Sweeting talks about recent developments in SSTL, such as the new innovative leasing capacity contract with China and the new advanced technical facility in Guildford. Sir Martin said: “SSTL is one of Guildford’s best kept secrets. We’re in Guildford building satellites!”.

This week DMCii has acquired satellite images of the Dollar Lake Fire in Oregon, USA showing the devastation caused by the current wildfires. According to officials, the fire is burning across 4,378 acres. There are now concerns that that strong winds and high temperatures may fuel the fire that is running close to Bull Run watershed, which is the main source of drinking water for people in Portland and many of its suburbs.

The fire started on the Labor Day holiday, September 5, 2011 at 5:06 p.m and is believed to have been caused by lightning. Emergency services are fighting to contain the fire with some nine helicopters and twenty four fire engines.

This satellite image is shown for illustrative purposes only. For news updates you may wish to visit on the Oregon Live website. There are updates on the Dollar Lake Fires at the Northwest Inter-agency Coordination Center.

With launch preparations complete, we take a closer look at how the satellite will be commissioned for its future mission. NigeriaSat-2 will be operated by a team of trained NASRDA operations engineers from the recently upgraded ground station in Abuja.

As part of their latest training and development programme, five NASRDA engineers undertook operations training, which will enable them to task, download and process image data, as well as manage day to day satellite operations.

For the LEOP (Launch and Early Operations) phase, four SSTL engineers will join the Nigeria operations team in Abuja. LEOP is expected to cover a period of around one week, during which time the satellite will be stablized. Over the following few weeks, engineers will switch on and test each of the spacecraft modules, including the imaging system. This will be an exciting time when we’ll see the first images and operations are handed over to the Nigerian team.


A period of calibration will commence over 2-3 months before the Nigerian team begin downloading and processing targeted images, which will be used to help manage urban planning, deforestation, water and food resources and support emergency relief campaigns through the Disaster Monitoring Constellation. NigeriaSat-2 image data will also be made available commercially, supporting a sustainable space industry for Nigeria.

As the launch of NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X grows ever closer, the final preparations are underway at the launch site in Yasny, Russia. What does it actually mean to get a satellite ready for take-off? We’ve spoken to Project Manager Andrew Carrel about the work of the mission launch team, who are busy onsite getting the satellites ready to be shot up in space.

Once unpacked from their transit case the mission launch team, consisting of engineers from SSTL and Nigeria’s NASRDA, immediately began a series of meticulous tests to make sure that the satellites had made the journey in good condition and that everything was working as it should. With no problems discovered, the team could then move on to making the final preparations and fittings.

Andrew Carrel said: “When transporting satellites such a long distance, there’s always a risk things will have changed since the tests we made at SSTL before we pack them up. We were pleased to see that everything was working absolutely fine, making the preparation work much more straightforward.”

The campaign team repeated the tests done at SSTL in the final AIT stage, testing the electrical circuits and making sure that, for example, the solar panels reacted correctly when illuminated. The satellite’s subsystems were then prepared, carefully filling up the propellant and charging the batteries in the power system. Many of these preparations can only be made in the last few days before the launch to make sure the satellite is in optimum condition. This includes removing the so called “red tag” items, such as lens caps and other protective covers, as well as fitting the so called “green tag” items, such as electrical plugs to replace tests cables.
Continue reading "Rigging NigeriaSat-2 for launch"

When a satellite passes within range of one of SSTL’s ground stations, log files from its entire orbit are automatically downloaded to Mission Control as well as real time telemetry. This “whole orbit data” includes information on the status of the various systems that make up the satellite. The Control Centre computers monitor the live telemetry and alert an operator if there is a problem. Depending on the severity of the problem, the operator on duty is sent an alert by email and SMS if urgent attention is required. During the day, an SSTL team is always on hand, but if a problem should occur out of hours the emergency response team take it in turns to respond.

James Northam, head of the Ground Systems Group, explains: “ We use the whole orbit data to monitor the performance of specific system parameters whilst the satellite is out of range of the ground stations. If there is a problem we can replay the recorded data to help determine the issue.” All the data is archived so there is a record of the whole mission from when a satellite was first launched to the mission completion. “Having this data record is invaluable. “ says James. “It allows us to look at trends in performance and spot the start of an issue early before it becomes a serious problem.”


The ground stations themselves are also monitored and controlled remotely from Mission Control. From a screen in Mission Control, the operators can check the status of all the groundstations and their associated hardware, and see the dish antennas via CCTV to confirm they are operating as they should. This morning we can see an antenna moving into position to track GIOVE-A on the monitor as it happens, making the experience all the more “real”. Like Mission Control, each groundstation is also highly automated: For example, the antenna dish will be stowed automatically in the event of high winds – which is essential when a ground station is in a remote or inaccessible location.
Continue reading "Spacecraft operations"

For anyone visiting the SSTL headquarters in Guildford UK during the past year, it’s been hard to miss the construction of the new state-of-the-art Kepler Building just opposite. True to SSTL’s approach, the building, that was just blueprints months ago, is now ready for business and is already filling up with people and equipment.



With projects such as the European GNSS payloads and the DMC3 Earth Observation constellation on the go, SSTL has far outgrown their original facilities at University of Surrey and there have been plans of a new completely customised building for some time. Space Blog caught up with SSTL Facility Manager Tim Gilbert, who oversaw the design and build of the new facility, from planning to construction. Tim pointed out how they used all their previous experience when planning and designing the Kepler building. Capitalising on input from engineers and employees whilst taking production workflow into consideration, was essential to make the new facility as functional and efficient as possible.

Tim Gilbert said “We needed to predict not only the future increased size but also the handling challenges associated with the future generations of satellites. As SSTL is moving towards producing larger and heavier satellites, we don’t want to be constrained by the size of the building in which we’re working. With the Kepler building we’re able to meet our 5-10 year business plan”.

The new facility’s cleanrooms, laboratories and testing facilities total 3,700sqm (40,000 sqft), a huge step change upwards in production capacity. Satellites as big as GIOVE-A can easily fit through the cleanrooms with 11 metre high ceilings, wide doors and large access corridors. The Kepler Building will accommodate typically 40 permanent staff, and anything up to 100 further project specific staff from across the company at peak test and integration periods.

New world-class Assembly, Integration and Test halls are integral to the new facility, providing two 125 cubic metre walk-in thermal chambers, a seismic test platform, monorail and gantry cranes ranging from 3,200kg to 15,000kg and reinforced floors - providing the greatest possible flexibility for integration and testing of both small and larger spacecraft simultaneously.

The Kepler Building is also assessed as Very Good through the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), evaluating a range of issues from the building’s user friendliness to it’s environmental impact.


Satellites currently being assembled and tested in the new world-class test halls include TechDemoSat-1 and the Kazakhstan medium resolution satellite for Astrium. Six SSTL satellite missions are scheduled for launch this year: NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X for NASRDA, KANOPUS 1 and 2 spacecraft for VNIIEM, ADS-1B for COM DEV, and SAPPHIRE for MacDonald Dettwiler Associates (MDA). The new capacity also plays an important role in SSTL’s contract to supply the first 14 European GNSS payloads in partnership with OHB Technology, which will be assembled in the secure facility.

This week, Space Blog visited Mission Control Guildford – from which SSTL monitors and controls more than a dozen small satellites – with James Northam, head of the Ground Systems Group.

We enter the room. All is quiet, apart from the whirr of server fans. Large flat screens display the footprints of the SSTL satellites in orbit. The reason for this rather quiet control room, explains James, is that SSTL Mission Control is a “lights out” operation, taking advantage of the high degree of autonomy on board the satellites and the sophisticated ground software, written in-house and unique to SSTL, to achieve this high degree of automation.

James said: “We currently track 14 satellites from our Mission Control Centre in Guildford, that is to say following their path as they orbit the Earth. We can follow their progress on-screen as they orbit and when they come into range of one of our groundstations we can communicate with them and gather data – for example monitoring their health or recovering data from the payload.

“In addition to tracking these satellites we also control four of these satellites directly from Mission Control Guildford on behalf of our customers.”

Continue reading "Inside Mission Control Guildford "

SSTL founder, Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, yesterday received a prestigious new honour recognising and celebrating local innovation, creativity and commitment. The Guildford Roll of Honour is the result of collaboration between local partners the University of Surrey and Guildford Borough Council and will go on permanent display at the historic Guildhall in Guildford’s town centre.


Sir Martin was nominated in recognition of his contribution to the economy and the profile of Guildford worldwide, winning both national and international acclaim for his work spanning three decades. The inaugural award was presented at a special celebratory black tie dinner on Thursday 30th June with an audience of guests drawn from the worlds of business, education and public service.

Earlier this week, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao witnessed the signing of a £110m satellite imaging deal between SSTL subsidiary DMCii and Beijing-based company 21AT during the UK-China trade summit at 10 Downing Street.


China’s rapid growth has prompted unparalleled demand for satellite imagery, which can be used for urban planning, change detection and disaster monitoring.

In a new way of requiring satellite imagery, 21AT will be leasing 100% of the DMC3 constellation’s capacity from DMCii, giving them the flexibility to quickly receive the images they need, but without the complexity associated with operating three satellites.

DMC3 will be powered by three SSTL-300S1 satellites, SSTL’s new smallsat design which provides unparalleled 1 metre high resolution imagery with high speed downlink and 45 degrees off-pointing.

Yesterday was a busy day at SSTL's HQ in Guildford. As the £110m DMC3 satellite constellation contract was being agreed with Chinese company 21AT, SSTL was also delighted to host a visit by three Members of Parliament with strong interests in space and what space applications can do for the "man on the street".

Simon Wright, MP for Norwich South, is vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Space Committee with a particular interest in Earth Observation and Climate Change. David Morris, MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale in Lancashire, is also a vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Space Committee with a particular interest in Space Science and Satellite Broadband access.

It’s genuinely exciting to see the high tech space industry working and growing here in Surrey. A facility like SSTL deserves a high level of Government support.

commented Jonathan Lord MP, who was interested in visiting SSTL given the proximity of the company's Guildford Headquarters to his Woking constituency.


During the visit the MPs met SSTL's founder and board chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting. Sir Martin commented:

SSTL is primarily an exporting company and needs to work closely with the government in many of our export activities. In addition to working closely with the newly formed UK Space Agency, the Parliamentary Space Committee provides an excellent forum for space companies like SSTL to discuss, with members of Parliament, the means by which the government can support our export activities.

Continue reading "Space-savvy MPs visit Kepler technical facility"

SSTL’s very own Mission and Systems Team Leader Kathryn Graham not only inspires Space Blog readers, but also motivates young people of all ages to become interested in careers within science and engineering as a STEM ambassador. Kathryn reaches out to young people by, for example, visiting schools, where she shares her real-life experience of how exciting a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) can be. Not all of us can say that we are employed to come up with new ideas for technologies to be put up in space!

Recently Kathryn engaged with 75 female students age 12-13 at the Warwick School in Redhill, a specialist technology college. Students from five schools in Surrey took part in the event, which was all about ‘Women into Science and Engineering’ (WISE). The day started off with a careers ‘speed dating’, where Kathryn met up with the students one-on-one to answer questions about her job and other STEM careers, such as: What does your job involve? Why did you choose your career? How important are STEM subjects in your job? What qualifications do you have?

The students were set an engineering task in the afternoon to create a self-propelled vehicle containing an egg - which proved to be more difficult than expected to avoid the much-feared ”scrambling effect”!



Continue reading "Reaching out to future space cadets"

Congratulations to the team from Shrewsbury School who have won the Space Experiment Competition with their proposal for an ionospheric scintillation experiment called POISE. The team beat off competition from 5 other teams of schoolchildren in the UK to develop their experiment with SSTL and fly their entry a small satellite that will be launched by SSTL in 2010.

Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire, beat five other groups from around the UK in the final stage of the competition which was announced at an awards ceremony at the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow (IAC) today (Friday 3 October).

The competition, launched earlier this year, challenged teams of 14 – 19 year olds to design and build a small, compact satellite instrument. The POISE experiment is expected to measure variations in the ionosphere, which can affect the accuracy and safety of satellite navigation systems, and might also help to provide indications of impending earthquakes.

The POISE team had to overcome significant challenges to design their experiment within the tight constraints of the competition. Their instrument could be no larger than the size of a lunch box, weigh no more than one kilogram and operate on less than one Watt of power.

Ian Pearson, the Minister for Science and Innovation was impressed with the results.

We have some fantastically creative and talented young people in the country. It’s staggering to see the effort and imagination that has been generated by this competition.

The competition has been sponsored by the British National Space Centre (BNSC), a cross-Government organisation that co-ordinates civil space activities in the UK.

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, founder of SSTL, emphasised the educational potential of the mission:

SSTL was founded by the University of Surrey and we have always had very strong links with academia, so we’re delighted to extend this opportunity to UK schools. I hope that the experiment will encourage more of our young people to take up careers in science and engineering.

Dr David Williams, Director General of BNSC

The UK has a fantastic capability in the space arena and ambitious plans for exciting programmes such as the lunar exploration mission, MoonLITE. We hope this competition will help to inspire the next generation of space scientists who will make those plans a reality.

The judging panel included Professor Colin Pillinger and Keith Mans, the Chief Executive of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

The winning team was announced at IAC by South Korea's first astronaut, Soyeon Yi. She recently returned from a trip to the International Space Station, having been chosen from about 36,000 applicants for the mission.

For some years now, SSTL has been using its Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellites to assist people around the globe who have become victims of natural disasters. On behalf of the International Charter, imagery has been rapidly collected, analysed, and then delivered to relief organisations which use the data in the immediate aftermath of natural catastrophes such as tsunamis, forest fires, floods, and earthquakes.

It has long been an ambition to move beyond “Disaster Monitoring” into the realm of “Disaster Mitigation”: providing assistance not only after the event has happened, but reducing the impact of the event by providing warning in advance of an impending disaster.

In some cases, of course, this is already possible. Hurricanes and cyclones can be tracked across the oceans for several days in advance of their landfall, giving residents in their path time to prepare. And indeed, this warning period also provides relief organisations with the opportunity to schedule imagery collection opportunities in anticipation of the expected destruction.

But other catastrophes are much harder to forecast, and perhaps the most intractable are earthquakes. Infrequently, major earthquakes, (so-called intra-plate earthquakes), occur unexpectedly, well away from known fault lines: an example being the magnitude 8 New Madrid earthquake of 1812, which was powerful enough to change the course of the Mississippi river in the USA.

Most of the time, however, earthquakes occur in relatively predictable locations on known fault lines – the San Andreas fault in California being probably the best known crack in the Earth’s crust.

So the problem is not so much to determine where an earthquake is likely to occur, but rather trying to figure out when it will happen. Consequently, scientists have spent years looking for precursor signals that they can measure in advance of an earthquake to provide people with an adequate warning.

Continue reading "Earthquake Prediction From Space "

This week Space Blog caught up with James Northam, head of the Ground Systems Group to find out more about how SSTL helps its customers to use and control their satellites once they are in space.

James explained, “The moment a satellite is launched into orbit it is physically completely inaccessible, so to make use of the satellite you need a communication link with the control centre back on Earth and tools that enable you to effectively utilise the mission. My Group provides all the hardware and software necessary to do this’


The Ground Systems Group comprises four teams: Ground segments, Ground software, Simulators and Spacecraft operations. Over the coming weeks we will find out more about each of these important functions and the technology involved. This week we take a closer look at Ground Segments.

Ground Segments

An SSTL Mission typically comprises two parts - The space segment consisting of the satellite platform and its payload and back on earth, the ground segment. For a typical SSTL mission the Ground Segment comprises a Spacecraft Operations Centre (SOC) which is responsible for the command and control of the satellite, a Mission Operations Centre (MOC) which deals with the payload planning activities and the processing of the payload data and a Ground Station which provides the communication link between the Ground Segment and Space Segment.

The teams involvement is flexible depending on the needs of the customer – “we can provide everything from hardware to integrate into an existing customers ground segment to providing a full turnkey ground segment solution for an SSTL mission”

“Our involvement starts at the beginning of the mission to understand the requirements both from the mission and from the customer perspective. We can then design the Ground Segment based on these requirements and on what, if any, existing infrastructure they may already have.”


Continue reading "Introducing the Ground Systems Group "

SSTL is supplying the EarthCARE Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) instrument for ESA’s EarthCARE mission. With spacecraft prime being EADS Astrium GmbH, EarthCARE is a joint European-Japanese mission, addressing the need for a better understanding of the interactions between cloud, radiative and aerosol processes that play a role in climate regulation.

Scientists agree that the knowledge of processes involving clouds, aerosol and radiation is far too limited. A better understanding of these processes could for example lead to more reliable climate predictions and weather forecasts. The objective of the EarthCARE mission is the observation of clouds and aerosols from low Earth orbit. The MSI instrument will provide information on the horizontal variability of the atmospheric conditions, to identify e.g. cloud type, textures, and temperature, and will form Earth images in seven spectral bands: one visible (VIS), one near-IR (NIR), two short-wave IR (SWIR) and three thermal IR (TIR).

The images of the Earth are captured and data recorded by two cameras – the VNS camera (covering the VIS, NIR and SWIR bands) and the TIR camera. The VNS and TIR cameras are part of the MSI Optical Bench Module (OBM) which is mounted on an external spacecraft panel, connected via a harness to the MSI Instrument Control Unit (ICU). The MSI ICU is located within the interior of the satellite and is being developed by SEA (Bristol). A CAD image of the MSI OBM is shown in Figure 1.

The TIR camera is being developed by SSTL with support from ABSL (Oxford) for the TIR blackbody and University of Reading for the filters and dichroics. An expanded view of the TIR camera showing the major building blocks of the camera is shown below (see Figure 2). The VNS camera is being developed by TNO with support from XenICs for the VNS detectors.

Continue reading "EarthCARE MSI moves ahead"

DMCii, SSTL’s imaging subsidiary, has been responding to an International Charter: Space and Major Disasters emergency activation for the flooding of Mississippi river in Central Midwest USA. The current flooding is approaching records set 84 years ago and it’s the first time in 40 years the level of the Mississippi has forced the floodgates to be opened. The UK has just taken over the chairmanship of the International Charter, and we take a closer look at the emergencies around the world that DMCii is providing satellites images for right now.

Fed by rainwater and the spring thaw, the Mississippi river and its tributaries have caused massive flooding upstream, and officials have said the flooding in Louisiana is the worst since 1927. About 25,000 people and 11,000 buildings could be adversely affected and the disaster’s Project Manager in the USA is using data from Charter members, including DMCii, to assess the situation. The flooding in the Mississippi delta has required an extended imaging campaign as the floods develop.

The dry and unusually warm spring has brought wild fires to several parts of the UK and DMCii has recently been “called in” to image a fire that broke out at the Belmont moor in Lancashire. On the other side of the World Mexico has also recently experienced raging fires, causing an activation of the International Charter. DMCii responded by tasking UK-DMC2 to image the area. Wild fires are common in Mexico at this time of year, but high temperatures and strong winds have meant that the country has experienced the worst fire season in 30 years, with the northern part of the country hit especially hard.



DMCii operates the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, a currently five-strong commercial satellite constellation made available on behalf of the UK as part of the Charter satellite fleet. Emergency on-Call Officers (ECOs) make themselves ready on a rotation basis to respond to International disasters on a 24/7 basis and task the Charter’s combined satellites in the event of an activation.

DMCii also has a place on the International Charter’s Executive Secretariat, which implements the day-to-day operation of the Charter.

The Constellation recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary at a Consortium meeting in London, focusing on how the constellation can be developed in the future, which you could read about here on the Space blog.

The time has come for the UK to take up leadership of the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters for a second time. Each member space agency takes it in turn to lead the Charter for a six-month period, and from yesterday Wednesday 11 May, DMCii together with the UK Space Agency will host and chair meetings, develop operational protocols and solve any problems that arise.

The Charter is a unique cooperation between space agencies worldwide, coordinating the acquisition of satellite images over disaster-stricken regions as quickly as possible. These images used to create up to date disaster response maps that are delivered to the relevant civil protection authorities as soon as they come in to help guide response efforts and save lives.

Initiated by the European, French and Canadian space agencies (ESA, CNES, CSA), the Charter has been activated more than 300 times since it was declared formally operational in 2000, with activations currently averaging once per fortnight. This year’s disasters have triggered 10 activations to date, including flooding in Australia, Brazil and Namibia, landslides in Turkey, earthquakes in New Zealand and the tsunami in Japan.


Continue reading "UK takes over international disaster relief effort"

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded SSTL with a Micro Heat Management System Study to identify innovative techniques to manage heat in nano/micro satellites (defined as having a volume smaller than 400×400×400 mm). The objective is to find recommendations on low cost heat management systems that can be used in a modular fashion.

NEOMEx is a programme for development of a new nano-satellite bus through the use of a system of microsystems such as the Micro Heat Management System. The aim of NEOMEx is to provide a low cost, low mass and readily adaptable spacecraft system as a solution to numerous mission types. An ESA study known as NanoSat is a potential mission concept example, as an application of a modular and configurable nano spacecraft.

Heat generated by all electronic devices and circuitry must be dispersed and ultimately radiated to Space in order to avoid overheating and to prevent premature failure in satellites and space systems. With heat management systems taking up volume, mass and power, there is a particular challenge in finding systems for dispersing heat in nano- and micro-satellites because their designs are dependent on using as little of these resources as possible. There is an increased interest in nano satellites from ESA and other organisations, as they offer more economical missions with ever increasing capabilities, making it even more important to find useful solutions with a small size in mind.

A lot of time, and therefore money, is usually spent designing thermal control systems that are used for just one particular satellite system. The SSTL led Heat Management System Study will for 15 months look at different innovative techniques to find the most effective design that can be reused repeatedly within ESA’s NEOMEx and similar programs.

50 years ago, on the morning of 12 April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin accomplished the feat of becoming first man in space - an event followed closely by people all over the world. The 50th anniversary of this pioneering space travel didn’t go unnoticed and as London is waiting for its very own Yuri Gagarin statue, donated by the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos), we take a closer look in what was to become a great milestone in space history.

In the backdrop of the Cold War, the United States and Russia had both experimented with sending up animals in space, but until 1961 there had been no humans. As the Americans were training cosmonaut Alan Shepherd, the Russians speeded up their launch of the ball-shaped Vostoc 1 spacecraft, positioned on top of the R-7 rocket. As the rocket blasted off in the morning of 12 April, Gagarin famously exclaimed: "Poyekhali", or "off we go". His spaceflight lasted 108 minutes and ended in a Russian field where Gagarin safely stepped out in front of curious onlookers.


Continue reading ""Poyekhali" – Off we go! Words made famous by Yuri Gagarin"

You may have heard of the severe flooding taking place in the UK within the last few weeks, fortunately only as part of a simulation conducted by the Environment Agency for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Assembly. Known as ‘Exercise Watermark’, the exercise was conducted to test the arrangements and response to severe, wide-area flooding across England and Wales.

The simulation formed the perfect opportunity for a DMCii led team of space experts to observe and participate in the practical aspects of a disaster to see how data and services from space could be used to improve UK emergency response.

During a disaster, such as severe flooding, space-based services can provide disaster response teams with up-to-date satellite maps and asset tracking capabilities to improve their situational awareness. Damaged or overloaded communications infrastructure on the ground can be reinforced using satellite telecommunications. ‘Exercise Watermark’ provided the team with a unique first-hand view of how a disaster is handled on the ground. Adina Gillespie, DMCii Project Manager pointed out:

“We know the contingency community doesn’t need to understand whizzy gadgetry, so now we’re asking ourselves how can we incorporate information from space assets seamlessly into their existing disaster response procedures”.



Continue reading "Satellites improving UK emergency response"

Following our recent spate of nano-sat news, SSTL has been announced as one of the finalists in the first-ever Nano-satellite Constellation Mission Idea Contest. The contest is organised by Japanese based Axelspace and SSTL is in stiff competition with organisations such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.



The objective of the competition is to encourage innovative exploitation of nano-satellites in constellations to provide useful and sustainable capabilities, services or data. SSTL’s Mission Concepts Engineer Richard Long has proposed the Distributed Multi-Spectral Imaging System (DiMSIS), demonstrating the feasibility of low cost nano-technology that can rival current technologies in many ways.

The DiMSIS is able to support applications such as agriculture, disaster relief, cartography, national security and Earth Sciences; meeting both humanitarian and scientific needs. Given the recent earthquake events in New Zealand, floods in Australia and the high level of seismic activity of Japan, disaster monitoring is an especially important application in the Asia Pacific region. The SSTL competition entry is focusing on how a nano-satellite system can be used in a similar way to the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, demonstrating how critical features of the constellation can be adapted in this new era of miniaturisation with minimal impact on the resulting system’s performance.


Continue reading "Nano-satellite competition finalist "

SSTL has taken delivery of a Search and Rescue Antenna (SARANT) for use to support the development of the fully operational satellites that will power Europe’s new satellite navigation system.

An important milestone, this is the first payload equipment to be delivered to SSTL since it was selected by the European Space Agency to deliver the navigation payloads for the first 14 satellites in the system just over a year ago. SSTL’s partner OHB-System in Germany is prime contractor, building the satellite bus for these satellites.


As part of a Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), Europe’s new sat-nav service will provide highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning, including specialised rescue services. Consisting of 30 satellites in 56 degrees inclined circular Medium-Earth-Orbits, the baseline is a constellation with 9 equally spaced satellites (plus one spare) per orbit.

The newly delivered Search & Rescue antenna will be used by SSTL in the full engineering model of the payload.

The Search and Rescue Payload on the satellites will relay distress and co-ordination messages from the COSPAS-SARSAT Search and Rescue service. The diagram below shows a fully operational satellite with the SARANT visible on top.




Continue reading "SSTL receives first payload equipment for European Sat-Nav"

Space Blog caught up with Shaun Kenyon from SSTL’s Mission Concepts following a busy IAC 2010 for the eagerly awaited follow up to his interview.

Today we’re looking at Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs). Whereas most satellites communicate via one or more groundstations on Earth, there are a number of reasons why communication between satellites is attracting increasing interest from the space community – from reducing latency and sharing costs to powering robust and intelligent multi-satellite systems.

ISLs – the challenges

LEO-GEO ISLs

Mission Concepts is looking at how low-earth orbit satellites such as Earth observation satellites can use existing geostationary satellites to relay messages eg. Task a satellite.

The principle is simple – right now most satellites can only be tasked to acquire an image during a pass above a ground station. Once it has then acquired the image, this data can be transferred by high-speed downlink to this or another groundstation later in its orbit.

Increasing the amount of groundstations in use is another way to reduce the time it takes to task a satellite. However, groundstations can be expensive to operate, especially when the satellites are maintained in a polar orbit, with groundstations in remote areas such as the Arctic or remote groundstations such as the Troll satellite station – as you might expect the logistics of getting supplies to the North Pole and providing high speed Internet are formidable!

By using just one geostationary satellite to relay commands, it is already possible to increase the window during which new commands can be issued to a satellite to nearly all the time. With two satellites this could be further improved with inter-satellite communications. Renting such basic capacity from a geostationary satellite could be quite a cost effective way to improve the window for tasking satellites – but most importantly it makes it possible to task a satellite very quickly.

Of course using a geostationary satellite to relay back information from a spacecraft in low earth orbit is nothing new – NASA and the USAF have done this for decades, although a commercial version has not yet materialised.

“In the best case scenario, we could task a satellite and download the image within a 30 minute timeframe. This would be a huge advance for satellite imaging.” Commented Shaun Kenyon.

With the implementation of the joint European Commission/ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, it is estimated that the European space telecommunications infrastructure will need to transmit six terabytes of data every day from space to ground. This led to another interesting concept, the European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS).

Bent pipe ISLs

For Earth observation bent-pipe ISLs are particularly interesting. The principle is that two satellites work together as a source and a relay. There are essentially two types of bent pipe ISLs.

1. A “scout” satellite spots a target then tasks a second satellite via a low-rate satellite link.
2. Faster downlink with X-band etc for data transfer.

IridiumNEXT is an interesting example that SSTL is watching closely. The satellite communications provider is using medium-scale data rate ISLs for satellite phone communications.

ISLs can also be used to coordinate formations of satellites. In particular, Mission Concepts is looking at the feasibility of using terrestrial Wi-Fi technology to coordinate a “swarm” of nanosatellites. Fast and low latency communication is possible because the satellites are relatively close together, and in the vacuum of space range is greatly improved.

Celebrating 10 years of success, members of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) and representatives from 12 different countries, the European Space Agency and six UK government departments met up in London last week for the 13th DMC Consortium Meeting. The UK Space Agency, SSTL and DMC International Imaging (DMCii) jointly hosted the day – the theme ‘Vision for the next Decade of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation’.

DMCii works with the world’s space agencies and the United Nations (UN) within the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters to provide multi-spectral and panchromatic optical imagery during disasters. The constellation responds to disasters frequently and has played an important role responding to disasters such as the Asian Tsunami (2004), Hurricane Katrina (2005), and the UK floods (2007). The constellation has also very rapidly supplied imagery for the recent earthquake in New Zealand.

SSTL’s cost effective approach to satellite design lowered the price tag of Earth Observation to the point where governments and organisations throughout the world could own an independent satellite, providing cost effective sovereign remote sensing capability with shared ground segment, image processing and commercial distribution – and play an essential role in international disaster response.


Continue reading "A decade of disaster monitoring"

During the past 25 years building satellites, SSTL has been instrumental in changing the economics of space for customers ranging from established space players such as ESA and NASA through to establishing new space programs for nations taking their first steps in space. With the incredible advances in engineering and electronics during this time, smaller satellites are increasingly catching up with their larger counterparts. The question technology guru Shaun Kenyon from Mission Concepts is now asking himself is: What can we do with today’s 50kg satellites and how does that compare to smallsats?

The answer to that question is simply; a lot! Known as nanosatellites (nanosats), these low mass satellites (for the purpose of this discussion let’s assume less than 50kg) are capable of a broad range of applications, including scientific research and Earth observation. The laws of physics makes some things more challenging though – for example preventing their use for applications such as high resolution imaging because a camera must maintain a minimum size of aperture to deliver such resolution.


Continue reading "What’s smaller than small? - Nanosats"

In October 2010 SSTL kicked off a reliability study for the European Space Agency (ESA) in partnership with BAE Systems, looking at alternative approaches to designing and analysing system-level reliability for low cost telecommunications missions.

ARTES-1 is the preparatory element to the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. The ARTES-1 programme is fully funded by ESA and enables European and Canadian industry to explore innovative concepts to produce leading-edge satellite communications products and services through research and development activities.

The study will conclude in the first half of 2012 and will propose alternative reliability prediction methods for the design, development and analysis of space systems within the European space industry in general - and low cost telecommunications satellites in particular.

SSTL is developing a new cost effective telecommunications satellite under the name GMP (Geostationary Minisatellite Platform), currently capable of accommodating payloads of up to 32 transponders requiring up to 3kW of power, and being enhanced to accommodate up to 44 transponders / 4.5kW of power. The GMP’s origins lie in the British National Space Centre’s (now superseded by the UK Space Agency) MOSAIC programme. Work completed under MOSAIC (MicrO Satellite Applications In Collaboration) enabled SSTL to develop GIOVE-A for ESA, the first satellite of the European GNSS constellation launched in 2005 and still operational. At an orbital height of over 23,000 km, GIOVE-A also constituted a successful first move “beyond LEO” for the company.

Drawing upon BAE Systems’ experience in system reliability and SSTL’s cost effective design methodologies, the study project team will produce a set of guidelines to evaluate the reliability of low cost design approaches to telecommunications missions of varying size and complexity.

Dr Matt Perkins, CEO of SSTL, accepted a prestigious industry award for outstanding contributions to technological advancement in aerospace, also involving elegance and commercial significance on Monday 24th January. SSTL was given this award by the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers, that promote excellence in the development of the trade within the modern aerospace, automotive and rail industries, and has been bestowed on the likes of Rolls Royce. SSTL was nominated by Vice-Admiral Timothy James Hamilton Laurence, CB, MVO, CSM, ADC(P)(I), and Matt Perkins accepted the award at a ceremony held at a dinner at the Savile Club.

It’s now five years since Space Blog reported on GIOVE-A transmitting its first signals for the European GNSS system. The first validation satellite GIOVE-A, was launched in December 2005 by a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, and is still working well five years after the satellite payload was commanded 'on' from the SSTL Mission Control Centre.

With a design lifetime of 27 months, the five-year-old has exceeded all expectations. Part of its long lifespan can be put down to design margins, though luck comes into it as well, according to GIOVE manager at ESA, Valter Alpe. The satellite has been orbiting through an exceptionally quiet time in the 11-year solar cycle, meaning it has accumulated lower radiation doses than originally anticipated.


GIOVE-A was built by SSTL in just 30 months and carries a prototype rubidium atomic clock designed for the European GNSS constellation. In 2008 GIOVE-A was joined by GIOVE-B, equipped with an ultra-precise passive hydrogen maser design as well as a second rubidium clock. Operational European GNSS satellites will carry both clock designs for maximum reliability.

SSTL’s Optical Payloads Group has commenced a science project that will study fluorescent emissions from vegetation using a remote sensing instrument designed to fly onboard a small satellite.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is notoriously difficult to measure and so far it has been impossible to calculate the uptake of the Earth’s CO2 sinks with sufficient accuracy for scientific analysis – for example hindering our ability to monitor the efficacy of CO2 mitigation policies. There is an urgent need to improve data on the natural CO2 uptake of vegetation in order to improve our understanding of its influence on the Earth's carbon cycle and its potential to suppress today’s increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration. Even minor changes in ecosystem-scale photosynthesis can have a significant affect on the global carbon balance.

Satellites have made a huge difference to our knowledge of vegetation conditions, but until now most of that information has come from remotely sensing reflected sunlight with multi-spectral Earth observation satellites. There is, however, one additional source of information about vegetation in the optical and near-infrared wavelength range. During photosynthesis part of the energy absorbed by chlorophyll is not used for carbon fixation, but re-emitted at longer wavelengths as fluorescence.

'The European Space Agency (ESA) Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX), which is a candidate for the Earth Explorer 8 missions, aims to provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence that can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity. These data would improve our understanding of how much carbon is stored in plants and their role in the carbon and water cycles.

SSTL will identify one optimised design of an instrument under a 400k€ contract from ESA that will detect the weak radiation emitted in this specific wavelength range from space. The Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer (FIMAS) instrument will be compact enough to fly on a small satellite as a precursor to the primary instrument onboard FLEX.

Heavy rains have caused major rivers in the Sucre/San Marcos region in Colombia to burst their banks, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. DMCii was activated via the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters to acquire images of the area giving rescue workers and officials a better estimate of the full impact of the flooding.



The image above was provided to Augustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC) which coordinates Earth observation imagery with Colombian organisations involved in disaster response such as IDEAM, COCLCIENCIAS.

The extreme weather further caused a hillside to collapse near the Colombian city of Medellin and according to BBC reports yesterday, 24 bodies were recovered with more than 100 people missing and feared dead. Several hundred people, including Red Cross rescue workers, soldiers and police, are digging through the deep mud in an effort to find survivors. More than 20 sniffer dogs have also been brought in.


View Larger Map The area seen from Google maps

The extreme weather is attributed to the La Nina climatic phenomenon, which is caused by water currents that are colder than usual along the Pacific coast. According to the Washington Post, Colombia's government says 1.6 million people have either lost their homes or had homes suffer partial damage. About 70 percent to 80 percent live in inundated flood plains and have not abandoned them "because they don't want to leave their homes and belongings for fear of losing everything," Luz Amanda Pulido, Colombia's national disaster management office, said.

DMCii regularly responds to disasters throughout the world, providing up to date imagery to help authorities and relief agencies to plan disaster relief efforts.