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 "

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 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.

SSTL has signed an order with the Federal State Unitary Enterprise - The Russian Research and Production Enterprise Pan-Russian Research Institute for Electromechanics (FSUE NPP VNIIEM) and Radioexport of Russia for the supply of satellite platform equipment and services for the KANOPUS Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Earth observation spacecraft.

The first satellite, KANOPUS-B, will be ready for launch in 2008. It will monitor the Earth's surface and will support the monitoring of disasters, agricultural planning and the management of water and coastal resources. Under the contract SSTL will supply FSUE NPP VNIIEM with the platform avionics equipment and software, and support their spacecraft assembly and integration activities in Russia.

SSTL's executive chairman Sir Martin Sweeting commented, "This contract is a unique opportunity for FSUE NPP VNIIEM and SSTL to further develop its co-operation on future Russian small satellite projects."

Last month ESA awarded SSTL a follow-on contract for the supply of a second navigation satellite, GIOVE-A2. 12 satellites are currently under construction and test at SSTL's facilities in Guildford for customers in Europe, North America and Africa.

Press Release: Russia places order with SSTL for satellite platform equipment