Space blog - Innovation

All aboard: TechDemoSat-1 takes on payloads

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:59:53 +0000

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.

TechDemoSat-1

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.

Students to propel Martian exploration

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:01:44 +0000

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.

Left to right: Tom, Chris, Oliver, SSTL’s Sahand Ghanoun , Paul and teacher Dax Patel

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.

Crookes radiometer © Nevit Dilmen

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.

The future of the Internet in space

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:39:34 +0000

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.

UK-DMC (Credit RAL)

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.

Clouds no problem for NovaSAR

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:18:24 +0100

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.

NovaSAR

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."

Android App contest for smartphone satellite

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:46:27 +0100

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.

Earthquake Prediction From Space

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:35:03 +0100

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 "

EarthCARE MSI moves ahead

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:15:51 +0100

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.

Figure 1: MSI Optical Bench Module

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"

Handling heat in nano-sats

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 03 May 2011 11:01:04 +0100

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.

Nano-satellite competition finalist

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:18:00 +0000

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 "

Faster, smarter space: Inter-Satellite Links

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:34:36 +0000

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.

What’s smaller than small? - Nanosats

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:16:23 +0000

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?

Jerome Salvignol working on SNAP-1

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"

Low cost satcoms under the microscope

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:17:59 +0000

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.

Shaun Kenyon talks tiny tech and satellite-speak

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:36:53 +0000

Space Blog caught up with Shaun Kenyon from SSTL’s Mission Concepts following a busy IAC 2010 at the start of the month for the eagerly awaited follow-up to our Mission Concepts interview with Kathryn Graham.

Shaun is perhaps one of the luckiest men in the building. One of his tasks is to keep on top of the latest commercial technologies and space research, and evaluate any synergies with SSTL activities.

The space industry today is moving forward as fast as ever. What's great about my job is that I keep my finger on that pulse so to speak, and help work out how SSTL fits and in some cases lead in that future.

Shaun Kenyon - Mission Concepts

There’s so much to cover that we have put together a series of small stories to give you a taste of the technical research developments afoot in Mission Concepts. Here’s an introduction.

Nano-satellites

The classification of satellites varies from place to place, but Mission Concepts constantly reviews the feasibility of using 10-50 kg nano-micro satellites for SSTL missions. This would come as no great surprise from the small satellite pioneer, but the question is what applications are they suitable for?

Shaun said:
“Nanosats really excite me at the moment. There's real momentum building up behind the cubesat movement and other nano-satellite developments. SSTL spearheaded a quiet revolution over the last few decades that saw microsatellites become acceptable for industrial use. I see current nanosat developments as a continuation of that revolution, and naturally I'd like to see SSTL be involved!”

Shaun’s Team Leader Kathryn Graham commented:
”One of the questions we are asking ourselves is what could a Disaster Monitoring Constellation-type program using nano-satellites achieve?”

We’ll be exploring the varying size and application of nano-satellites with Shaun in the coming weeks so watch this space.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

Kathryn’s colleague Shaun is looking at flying common Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and other miniaturized components seen in everyday modern technologies like games consoles and using them for applications as wide ranging as attitude determination, attitude control, Failure Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR), space weather monitoring, and manipulating radio parts to miniaturize low data rate communications.

Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs)

Mission Concepts is also looking at a number of exciting ways to communicate between satellites – with wide ranging application for both constellations and formations. These include reducing the lag time for tasking Earth Observation (EO) satellites to acquire images of the Earth, using industry standard 802.11 wireless networking ("Wi -Fi") between nano-satellites to coordinate a swarm of nano-satellites, and using miniature lasers for interplanetary communications.

Stay tuned for more on Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs) and Wi-Fi swarms.

Plug and play satellites SSTL has a long history of building and launching reliable space-grade missions more quickly and cost effectively by applying Commerical Off The Shelf (COTS) technology. USB is not an exception – Mission Concepts is considering the use of electrical interfaces like USB for responsive space applications - plug and play means “build it quick”.

Inside Mission Concepts with Kathryn Graham

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:34:23 +0100

Space Blog caught up with Kathryn Graham, leader of SSTL’s Mission Concepts team last week –a rare and exciting opportunity to get inside the “innovation engine” and find out where new ideas are put to the test.

Kathryn has a degree in Physics with Astrophysics, and a Phd in XRAY Astronomy. Her career began at QINETIQ where she worked for 10 years in Military Space Surveillance. Ironically, her last role before joining SSTL was as the image processing engineer for the TopSat mission – a high resolution small satellite technology demonstration that SSTL built for the TopSat consortium. In fact, she processed the first images downloaded from TopSat in 2005.

Kathryn Graham - Mission Concepts

Kathryn has been part of SSTL for 3 years, migrating from its Mission Systems team to head up Mission Concepts. During this time, one of the highlights was completing a study exploring utilisation of DMC type missions within ESA’s landmark GMES programme.

Ignoring any official job title, I was the ‘Feasibility study person’ at that time and I found the GMES study very interesting. My hard work was well received by ESA – which I found very rewarding.

Kathryn said that she finds her role at SSTL hard work like any job, but also exciting, commenting:

I work in a company that launches satellites for God’s sake – how many people can say that!

Kathryn also said that she found the company culture very welcoming:

People feel that they matter – and everyone pulls together as a team.

Of course, it’s not all stardust and rocketry. Kathryn draws upon her background to analyse desk research, reports and feasibility studies. She commented: “I’m a scientist and in my job I attend conferences, review current missions and perform feasibility studies – we’re also lucky to have a number of experts in-house that I regularly call upon for views.”

Mission Concepts

Mission Concepts considers concepts for their scientific, technological and commercial merits and feasibility – as opposed to the Mission Systems unit which deals with projects that are close to mission sign up. It is a special dedicated team for research which ultimately belongs to the Engineering department of SSTL.

Of course at SSTL a concept isn’t just a pipe dream. In a culture of innovation, the right idea can become a full-blown development program within months using proven “off-the-shelf” satellite platforms. Mission Concepts identifies trends, new technologies and applications in space and assesses their feasibility.

For example, Mission Concepts conducted an altimeter constellation feasibility study for ESA and also contributed to work for the Sentinel 5 Precursor programme. Mission Concepts also helps customers to define the requirements for their space programme or mission. Last but not least, the team asks itself questions like “What’s the next Disaster Monitoring Constellation?” This is a highly successful Earth Observation constellation that is not only sustainable but also expanding, providing rapid and global Earth observation – but started with an innovative vision combining new technologies with an unprecedented model of International partnership.

No two days are ever the same for Mission Concepts so let’s look into a few of the projects that they have been involved with.

Continue reading "Inside Mission Concepts with Kathryn Graham"

Increasing Potential of Small Satellites

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:43:45 +0100

SMi and SSTL have teamed up to organise a conference "The Increasing Potential of Small Satellites" which will take place at the Surrey Research Park in Guildford this December. The event follows on from the sell-out of The Potential of Small Satellites Masterclass in 2009. Register for a comprehensive survey of both the current and future technologies involved in small satellite design, and also the current and future applications to which those technologies can be applied.

SSTL's Internationally renowned Military space expert Dr. Stuart Eves will lead a Masterclass that combines presentations, discussions and interactive learning offering delegates:

An understanding of the current potential of small satellites and an insight into their future capabilities.

Insight into the field of small satellite engineering, since system design, satellite technology and data processing applications.

A chance to see some of the world’s latest small satellite technology “in the flesh”.

Delegates will spend a full day at the SSTL headquarters on the Surrey Research Park in Guildford, with the opportunity to see SSTL’s ground control facilities and satellite assembly facilities.

Satellites are changing the way we live, and small satellites are at the forefront of this revolution. This makes the conference relevant to any organisation with an interest in communications, remote sensing, navigation, and high-technology scientific investigation. You'll be in good company - last year's attendees included US Army, Canadian Space Agency, Verhaert Space, Netherlands Space Office, European Space Agency, Thales Alenia Space, Logica, Ordnance Survey, CNES and Tesat-Spacecom.

To find out more about this conference visit SMi: The Increasing Potential of Small Satellites