Space blog

Student space project gathers speed

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:54:55 +0000

It’s been a few months since our blog about the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) The aim of the scheme is to provide students aged 16 and 17 with experience in engineering, science and technology in order to make informed decisions about their future education and career.

The students from Farnborough 6th Form College are investigating ways to detect signals in space that offer a precursor to earthquakes. In this respect, it also has something in common with the POISE space experiment that SSTL helped students to develop on behalf of the British National Space Centre (BNSC).

Rhys Llewellyn and Calum Jones working on the satellite model.

In January, despite the unusually heavy snow the students managed to attend a two day workshop at Surrey University. The team had done some broad research into the field, but still had not decided on which technology(s) would be most appropriate for detecting precursors to earthquakes.

Within the first day, they had decided on a combination of a topside sounder that would measure ion concentration in the ionosphere from above, and an infrared camera which has also shown some promising results for earthquake detection. The rest of the time, the team concentrated on building a half-scale model of a Disaster Monitoring Constellation type spacecraft to be used for display purposes.

SSTL’s David Sanderson has been visiting the team roughly every two weeks after work to provide supervision and mentoring. Their model is now certainly looking the part (see photo above) and the team is preparing their report for assessment and celebrations in April.

Meet Surrey at Satellite 2010

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:58:34 +0000

SSTL and its US operation SST US are attending the Satellite 2010 exhibition at National Harbor, Maryland, USA from 16-18 March 2010.

Visit Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd on stand 1925.

SST US CEO John Paffett will be joined by Kathryn O'Donnell, Yasrine Ibnyahya and Simon Crouch from SSTL and Brent Abbott, Becky Yoder and Katherine Defoe from SST US.

Come and find out about how we deliver low risk high performance satellites at a fraction of the price usually associated with such levels of capability.

Chandrayaan-1 finds water on the Moon

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:38:28 +0000

Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits on the Moon near its north pole.

This is exciting news the World over because water is a key factor in the ability of an extra terrestrial environment to support life. The SSTL team is also watching with great interest because the payload is controlled by a specially built on-board computer (OBC) built by its team in Guildford - its first to be flown onboard a lunar mission. The OBC is programmed to control the instrument and to store the payload data which is then beamed back to the astounded NASA scientists on Earth.

NASA's Mini-SAR instrument found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 1 to 9 miles (2 to 15 km) in diameter. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 1.3 trillion pounds (600 million metric tons) of water ice.

Continue reading "Chandrayaan-1 finds water on the Moon"

UoSAT-2 transmitting for 26 years

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:58:24 +0000

Twenty six years ago today the University of Surrey team led by future SSTL-founder Sir Martin Sweeting launched the UoSAT-2 satellite (a.k.a UO-11) onboard a Delta rocket with LandSat-D from Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA on the 1st March 1984.

UoSAT-2 graphic

The 60kg small satellite was built in just 6 months and carried a Digitalker speech synthesiser and experiments including magnetometers, a CCD camera, a Geiger-Müller tube and a microphone to detect micrometeoroid impacts.

UoSAT-2 was instrumental in providing a communications link from the Canadian-Soviet Ski-Trek support teams to the expedition party in 1986. The position of the skiers' emergency beacon was calculated daily by Cospas-Sarsat ground stations and relayed to them and thousands of amateur radio listeners as a spoken message from the Digitalker on board UO-11. This is really worth a listen - visit the expedition web page. The message could also serve as an emergency channel to the skiers in the event that all other radio links failed.
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SSTL on The Gadget Show

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:11:49 +0000

Small satellite pioneer and all round British space innovator SSTL will star in next week’s episode of The Gadget Show on the UK’s Five television channel at 8pm on the 8th March.

Of course the exact details of the program are top secret, but presenters Ortis Deley and Suzi Perry will attempt to locate fellow presenter Jon Bentley using satellite technology. If you want to find out more, you’ll just have to tune in.
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Obama cuts manned moon budget

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:43:06 +0000

Sir Martin Sweeting :

So President Obama has scrapped the US plans for a manned return to the Moon. As the world claws it way out of recession, many might see this decision as being financially prudent. However, the exploration of the lunar surface is still very much on the agenda. But it won’t be man making one small step next time, it will be a robot!

Several nations are planning robotic lunar missions including India, China, Korea and interestingly, the USA. And when you think about it, this makes perfect sense because robotic lunar missions are much more cost effective than manned missions, although not so emotive. Of course, robotic exploration is nothing new with NASA and ESA both utilising this technology, but it’s still very expensive. The price tag for the European ExoMars programme is around €1Bn which is a lot of money in any currency. But does robotic exploration have to be this expensive?

MoonLITE Orbiter Penetrator, designed by SSTL for the design phase of the UK government's MoonLITE mission for a low-cost orbiter carrying scientific lunar surface penetrators and a communications relay payload to the Moon in 2014.

At SSTL we don’t think so. We think it is possible to knock a “0” off the cost of mounting lunar robotic exploration mission by simply employing the same, well founded, production techniques that SSTL use to reduce the cost of designing and building Earth-orbiting small satellites.

Currently, there is enormous interest in the moon, particularly with the prospect of finding water, the key perhaps to a permanent manned lunar base in the future. The LRO and LCROSS missions are currently surveying the lunar surface to identify future landing sites. Now is the time to mount a low cost robotic mission to Moon in order to prove the technology and its suitability for other more distant planetary missions.

Don't miss Sir Martin Sweeting on IET.tv

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:33:30 +0000

SSTL founder, and Director of the Surrey Space Centre, Professor Sir Martin Sweeting gave a talk on small satellites for the Appleton Lecture organised by the IET on 19th January.

The Appleton Lecture was established in 1965 to commemorate the life and work of Sir Edward Appleton, a widely honoured physicist and Nobel Prize winner who is mainly noted for research into the upper atmosphere. In keeping with this theme, Sir Martin was invited as a world renowned expert on satellites, to give an hour long talk Small Satellites - Big Future. For anyone who missed the lecture on the 19th January, the IET has made it avaliable online at IET.tv.

If you have an interest in SSTL, satellite engineering and the future of space technology to tune in online - it's a very good watch. Just click on Small Satellites - Big future.

Meet SSTL at a show in 2010

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:13:15 +0000

The SSTL Group is attending a number of shows in 2010 where it will present its latest satellite subsystems, satellite communications and civilian and commercial earth observation mission capabilities. Experts from SSTL and its American operation SSTL US will be on hand to discuss your latest space challenges and how they might be solved.

SATTECH
Singapore - 28-30 January 2010.
The Global Space and Technology Convention (GSTC) is the world’s premier Space Convention showcasing the latest technology in space engineering and design.

ASS Guidance & Control Conference
Breckenridge, Colorado, USA - 6-10 February.
Join SSTL US LLC at the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) Conferencefor the latest developments in GN&C technology, with a unique focus on theory and applications in aeronautics and astronautics.

HOSDB 2010
Farnborough - 16-18 March 2010. Join SSTL on stand F17.
The HOSDB 2010 exhibition is a UK event showcasing the latest security equipment for law enforcement and public security. It focuses on: Crime and Policing, Security and Counter Terrorism, Identity Management and Border Security.

Satellite 2010
National Harbor, Maryland, USA - 16-18 March 2010. SSTL stand 1925.
This event looks to the future of satellite-enabled communications and the solutions that new technology and new markets will provide. Keep an eye on the Satellite Today blog for more information.

FIDAE Air & Space Show
Santiago, USA - 23-28 March 2010
This is the leading fair in Latin America and one of the five most important aeronautical fairs in the world.

National Space Symposium
Colorado Springs, USA - 12-15 April 2010. Join SSTL US LLC on stand 308.
The symposium has become widely known as the premier U.S. space policy and program forum with information and interaction on all sectors of space.

For more information keep an eye on Space Blog - or why not subscribe to our RSS feed using the big orange button in the top right.

SSTL is on BBC Breakfast today

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:13:33 +0000

As part of its mini-series looking at the state of British manufacturing, BBC Breakfast's Tim Muffett visited SSTL's headquarters in Guildford to find the secrets of its success.

The video report gives a sneak peak at cleanroom operations and mission control. Mr Muffet also catches up briefly with SSTL CEO Matt Perkins and Business Development Manager Phil Davies to discuss how SSTL hs carved a unique niche in the international space market with its low cost alternatives to conventional space missions.

If you missed BBC Breakfast this morning, or if like many Space Blog visitors you are from abroad you can watch the video report Surrey satellite firm weathers the recession online.

Green light for Galileo satellites

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:05:17 +0000

Today at 12:30 in Brussels, the EC announced that the SSTL and OHB-System team has been selected by ESA to supply 14 navigation satellites for the deployment phase of the Galileo satellite navigation system in a deal worth 560m Euro.

Galileo satellite

The two companies agreed to work together as a “core team” on Galileo at the end of 2007, with OHB taking the role of prime contractor and builder of the spacecraft “bus” and SSTL taking full responsibility for the navigation payloads onboard the satellite that will form the heart of the Galileo navigation system.

SSTL Group CEO Dr Matt Perkins is delighted with the news:

The award of this contract is an important step for SSTL. Our satellites are already providing operational services for many government and commercial customers and we are pleased to have a major role within Europe’s flagship Galileo programme. The experience gained on GIOVE-A will help us to ensure the contract will be a success for the EC and ESA. This programme will also help to establish SSTL as a provider of communications and navigation satellites into other markets.

It was champagne all round at SSTL in Guildford as the news was announced, warming spirits despite worst snow for 30 years affecting the local area.

A jubilant SSTL’s Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting, added

This award is great news for the UK space industry and once again confirms SSTL as a world leader in sophisticated satellites and payloads, building on its 25-year history pioneering small satellites with 34 already launched, truly changing the economics of space.

The first Galileo satellites produced under this contract will be launched from 2013. To help improve the overall schedule the team was authorised by the EC and ESA to initiate the procurement of long lead items for the full system during 2009 which will enable the team to make a quick start towards an operational Galileo constellation.
Continue reading "Green light for Galileo satellites"

Galileo satellite's 4th birthday today

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:54:52 +0000

SSTL is celebrating the 4th anniversary of the launch of its historic GIOVE-A satellite today. As the first of the Galileo In Orbit Validation Element satellites, GIOVE-A was the first step in Europe's visionary Galileo satellite navigation programme when it was launched on December 28th 2005.

During the past 4 years, SSTL and GIOVE-A have contributed significantly to the testing and validation of technologies vital to the now imminent operational constellation of satellites. The 660 kg GIOVE-A satellite was built by SSTL for ESA in just 30 months at a cost of just 28m Euros.

SSTL CEO Dr. Matt Perkins commented

SSTL is proud of its involvement with the Galileo programme and the continuing success of GIOVE-A. This mission has clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of SSTL’s small satellite approach for the delivery of operational missions.

GIOVE-A was the first part of the in-orbit validation programme for Galileo, broadcasting the first signal to successfully secure the critical Galileo frequency filing with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) at 17:25 GMT on the 12th January 2006. This was a significant achievement for SSTL having commissioned the necessary systems to achieve this broadcast in just 3 weeks.

On the 2nd May 2007 GIOVE-A successfully transmitted the first Galileo navigation message from space, containing the information needed by users' receivers to calculate their position using the future Galileo satellite navigation service. These signals have since been used for signal quality testing and for equipment manufacturers and the scientific community to validate prototype Galileo receivers.

Throughout the past 4 years, the satellite has provided valuable data about the Medium Earth Orbit which the Galileo constellation will occupy, helping to characterise the radiation environment and validating subsystems such as an atomic clock and the Galileo signal broadcasting payload.

In July and August this year, GIOVE-A was gradually moved to a higher orbit to ensure that it does not cross the operational Galileo constellation’s orbits when the first operation satellites are launched in 2012. The satellite has been in orbit for 21 months beyond its original 27 month mission design life and continues to provide critical data to all of the ground users experimenting with Galileo navigation signals

SSTL, together with its partner OHB-System of Bremen, Germany form the core team of one of the two consortia bidding for the operational satellites. The final proposal was delivered to ESA in November and the outcome of the evaluation process is awaited. To help improve the overall schedule the team was authorised by the EC and ESA to initiate the procurement of long lead items for the full system earlier this year. The British space pioneer looks forward to continued success supporting the European Space Agency (ESA) and the EC with the expertise it has gained and its cost effective and reliable approach to satellite and subsystem design and manufacture.

SSTL sponsors students scientists

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:19:16 +0000

SSTL is sponsoring a team of students that have been enrolled in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) to help solve real and live problems for engineering, applied science and technological companies. The Scheme is set up by the Engineering Development Trust (EDT), with the aim to provide students aged 16 and 17 with experience in engineering, science and technology in order to make informed decisions about their future education and career.

During the 6 month programme, the students who all currently attend Farnborough 6th Form College, will take on the task set by SSTL to “Investigate possible ways of detecting earthquake precursor signals using satellites, to help us move from disaster monitoring to disaster mitigation”. The project will be mentored by SSTL Radio Frequency team member David Sanderson.

David Sanderson, Stephen Birtles (school teacher), Joe Cleminson, Rhys Llewellyn, Calum Jones and Teodora Ghiuvea

David met with the four budding engineers and their school teacher to give them a tour of the SSTL clean rooms, a presentation on small satellite engineering and introduced them to the project, which will end in April or May with a Celebration and Assessment Day by professional engineers.

The aim of the project is to provide SSTL’s Mission Concepts team with carefully calculated information, including mass, volume and power estimates, for a pre-selected list of sensors. These estimates can then be used to determine the size of the mission required to carry them.

Sweeting talks small satellites

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:47:59 +0000

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

Sir Martin Sweeting

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

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

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

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

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

Proba-2 Goes Gas

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:49:47 +0000

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

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

SSTL's Gas Propulsion System

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

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

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

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

Student Moon mission begins

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:56:06 +0000

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

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

Team ESMO!

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

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

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

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

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

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