Students from all over Britain have taken part in the BNSC’s “Space Experiment Competition”, the brainchild of SSTL’s very own Dr. Stuart Eves. From a sea of hopeful entrants, the judges have now whittled down the contestants to 6 finalists. The remaining students are from St George’s College Addlestone, Helston Community College, Langton Star Centre, Schome Park Project, Shrewsbury School and UKHAS.

The ambitious experiments will study a variety of space exploration issues, ranging from how to stop Near-Earth space dust damaging space craft to minimising the affect of electrically charged particles on space communication. In the race to outdo each other the students have come up with some really innovative ideas, including proposing ways to measure the resistance of bacteria in space and even measuring the number of meteors entering the atmosphere. So if you’re a budding physicist or engineer or are just interested in space, get yourself to the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) congress in Glasgow where the winning proposal will be announced in October 2008.

Minister for Science and Innovation, Ian Pearson today visited SSTL’s headquarters in Guildford to discuss the company’s important contribution to the UK space industry. His visit follows the release of the UK Civil Space Strategy on February 14th, which outlines the Government's future direction for the sector for 2008-2012.

Mr Pearson visited SSTL operations critical to supporting the Government’s space objectives. This included an introduction to SSTL’s DMCii Ltd subsidiary, where he met the team that are currently leading the International Charter: Space and major disasters on behalf of the BNSC. He also met project managers from the European Space Agency (ESA) missions such as the highly successful Galileo satellite, GIOVE-A, and discussed the role of small satellites in providing security and military capabilities.

Speaking at SSTL, Minister for Science and Innovation, Ian Pearson, said:

"The UK Civil Space Strategy outlined the Government's commitment to the UK space industry and measures to ensure UK businesses increase their share of the growing international sector. As I've seen today some of the most innovative work in this area is being carried out right here in Surrey."

The highlight of Mr Pearson’s visit was the presentation of plans that will secure the UK’s closer involvement in international initiatives on the future shape of space exploration to the Moon, Mars and beyond. SSTL will take the lead on landmark missions to prove new technologies that will provide low cost infrastructure for future lunar missions. These could include the provision of communications from the Moon back to Earth. This British-supplied infrastructure could also be used to relay communications back from interplanetary missions, for example Mars to Earth.

Sir Martin Sweeting, SSTL Group Executive Chairman, commented,

“SSTL is pioneering innovative low cost technologies that maintain and develop the UK’s market share in the global space sector. In particular, SSTL’s MoonLite and MoonRaker missions with NASA are of great importance to the British government’s space strategy going forward.”

In time, a constellation of satellites could also be built up to provide valuable services such as GPS in the same way as the Earth. This satellite infrastructure will provide essential services to the international missions on the Moon’s surface such as Rovers, Landers and smaller space experiments that are planned by nations such as Russia, China, India and the US over the coming years.

The UK is taking charge of an international group providing satellite data to support disaster relief across the world. The British National Space Centre and DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) will lead the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” from October 2007 until April 2008.

The Charter was set up in 2000 to provide satellite data and imagery to help governments and aid agencies plan emergency relief following major disasters. It has provided valuable information to relief agencies after earthquakes, floods, landslides and volcanic eruptions.

When the Charter is activated, Earth observation satellites operated by 14 international organisations are made freely available. The satellites provide data which is then used to produce maps and other information for emergency response efforts.

The UK-built Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) is a key member of the Charter. The five satellites were built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and are owned individually by Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and the UK.

DMCii will chair the Charter Secretariat. DMCii Managing Director David Hodgson said: “Imagery from the DMC has been provided for more than 50 disasters and is particularly valuable in monitoring fires and floods.

“DMCii is also proud to provide regular emergency on-call services to the Charter and to task the world’s Earth observing satellites in response to disasters.”

Minister for Science and Innovation Ian Pearson said: “The UK is proud to lead this important group. We often think of space as being somewhere to explore, but it can also bring enormous benefits to us here on Earth."

Disaster Monitoring is one of the more direct forms of benefit from space, making it easier for the public to comprehend. The Charter is frequently called into action, or in Charter terms "activated". Charter members have been called on 34 times so far this year including on 14 September after floods devastated 12 countries in West Africa. The Charter was also activated in the aftermath of Hurricane Felix which hit Nicaragua and Honduras on 4 September 2007. The UK has activated the Charter twice this summer following the floods in north and south west England. Satellite data and images were used to produce maps of the flooded areas to help the Environment Agency assess the full extent of the damage.

SSTL is to launch two new enhanced Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satellites in the fourth quarter of 2008. Deimos-1, which was built for Deimos SL (Spain) and SSTL’s UK-DMC2 will be launched onboard a Dnepr rocket from the new Kosmotras launch site in southern Ural.

Both Demios-1 and UK-DMC2 will carry an enhanced version of the DMC wide area imaging system, providing 600km wide swaths of the Earth in three spectral bands at a ground resolution of 22-metres. This is an advance on the current 32-metre DMC imager, which has been successfully providing imagery for over five years in the current constellation of five spacecraft. Additionally, the new spacecraft have over ten times the capacity for information provision. These significant enhancements reflect SSTL’s evolutionary approach to development that provides state of the art performance with minimal risk. The improved resolution and capacity enable the system to better meet European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program needs, particularly in the areas of forestry and fire.

UK-DMC2 has been funded and developed by SSTL to continue the success of DMC International Imaging (DMCii), which commercially exploits the data and help ensure continuity of the unique service provided by the constellation of DMC satellites for disaster relief and humanitarian aid.

The launch contract has been signed with ISC Kosmotras, with Commercial Space Technologies (CST) acting as the interface between SSTL and the launch agency.

Deimos Imaging (DMI) is part of the Deimos Space Group, and is based in the Boecillo Technology Park, Madrid. DMI is led by the Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque and aims at offering products based on satellite-captured information for use in Earth observation applications. One of the most notable aspects of DMI is the vertical integration of the production chain, which includes its own capture capability through the Deimos-1 satellite, as well as a remote sensing laboratory boasting a high R&D&I capacity.