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.

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”.

SSTL’s military space expert Dr. Stuart Eves has accepted a year’s secondment to the new Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at the UK’s new Harwell facility to advise on space security. His principal responsibility will be as the authority on the Security and Resilience Unit (SRU) that will form part of the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC).

Enough with the acronyms! ISIC is a joint venture between the UK Government and Industry, that is anticipated to evolve into a centre which supports both UK national requirements as well as international security-related space systems. The idea is to create a Hub of Innovation that will act as a seed-bed for innovation in the UK.

Stuart will also be expected to actively liaise with the newly formed UK Space Agency on space security matters in support of government policy making, since a close relationship between the policy and strategy aims of the agency and the executive elements at ISIC will clearly be essential.

Continue reading "Space security guru Stuart to advise government"

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.

Continue reading "SSTL on The Gadget Show"

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.