Space blog

Big News this week, SSTL has completed the move to their new UK HQ at Tycho House in the Surrey Research Park. “Having everything under one roof is going to be great for the business as prior to move we were spread across four different buildings” said Wei Sun Group Director of Corporate Business and Marketing.

“With manufacturing research, communication and administration being bought together we all feel very confident at maintaining our tremendous growth rate which is currently running at 30% per annum”. And on that point SSTL heard this week that they have once more been listed as one of the Surrey MegaGrowth 50 companies – another award for the cabinet!

Anyway, back to the move. Tycho House is just 2 miles away from the old buildings in the University of Surrey’s campus. The purposely built new building is located in the northwest corner of the Surrey Research Park and has plenty of room for further expansion. After discussion the company opted for an open plan working environment in order to increase the communication inside the company to support the essential need for fast growth. The staff has given the new offices a “big thumbs up” and all are very pleased with the new working environment. So now everything is focused once more on meeting and exceeding customer’s expectations by providing the best service possible.

So why call the new building Tycho House? Well, Tycho Brathe made enormous contribution to astronomy and revolutionised astronomical instrumentation and so SSTL thought that his work reflected closely that of the company. “We hope that we will be able to live up with his innovation and imagination and continuously push the boundaries of "Changing the Economies of Space" said SSTL’s MD Prof. Sir Martin Sweeting.

Monitoring and detecting greenhouses gases is of critical importance to the future of the planet. While there are some conflicting reports that attempt to quantify the rate of climatic change, one fact that the scientific community do seem to agree on is that greenhouse gases are adversely influencing our environment today and will continue to do so in the future. The Kyoto protocol requires such harmful gases to be monitored, therefore the European Space Agency (ESA) have awarded an important contract to a UK team lead by space experts Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd (SSTL) to provide a solution to this global problem.

The impact of climate change on the global environment is currently attracting significant global coverage. The key question requiring an answer is how human activity affects the surrounding environment is a subject generating significant debate from both ?pro? and ?anti? lobbies. A number of inter-governmental treaties have been signed (including Kyoto) which attempt to limit the amount of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, O3) produced around the globe. Careful monitoring of greenhouse gases is essential if we are to understand fully the impact of these elevated levels on our environment. The key gases are CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane), which have the biggest impact on the Earth?s atmosphere.

Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased dramatically in the last 50 years to levels currently (2005) exceeding 370 ppm. This alarming trend is thought to be a significant factor in global warming.

ESA is considering using a LIDAR instrument to monitor the levels of CO2 within the atmosphere. The most effective wavelength to detect CO2 is at 2 ?m due to its deep absorption signature at this wavelength.

SSTL has been awarded a contract from ESA to develop a new detector to address this spectral region. SSTL will prime the activity with Sheffield and Heriot Watt Universities and Lidar Technologies Ltd as subcontractors. The total contract value is ?400k and will be undertaken in 18 months.

SSTL attended the parliamentary reception on Africa and UK Space run by the Parliamentary Space Commission (PSC) on the 26th April. The reception highlighted the important role space has to play for African nations and the crucial role played by Britain's space community in tackling the major challenges of Africa today as the continent confronts the twin challenges of sustainable development and natural and humanitarian disasters.

The keynote speaker Professor Robert Borroffice, the Director General of the Nigerian Space Agency discussed how Nigeria is rapidly becoming the leading African nation to benefit from the use of space and Professor Borroffice will highlight progress and future plans.

SSTL have been instrumental in the development and support of Nigeria's space programme since the establishment of the Nigerian National Space Agency in 1999, which included the building and know-how transfer for Nigeria's first satellite, the NigeriaSat-1 launched in October 2003. Such cooperation is essential for space programmes in developing nations, Professor Borroffice was quoted by African news site www.thisdayonline.com, "it is impossible for a single country to go it alone."

Nigeria now hopes to progress their space programme further, with a second satellite NigeriaSat-2 to be built by SSTL with a 2.5m pan EO (Earth Observation) satellite currently under consideration.

Space was traditionally considered to be expensive and consequently, the poorest continent, Africa, was not involved in space programmes. In particular, Nigeria rejected space programmes entirely in 1976. However, in the last five years, low cost small satellites pioneered by SSTL in the UK have stimulated a series of space programmes in Africa.

These African space initiatives have resulted in great benefits to Africa with respect to space applications, capacity building and economic development. They have played an important role in international disaster monitoring and human global warming and climate change prevention efforts. They have also generated further demand for space assets, applications and services, particularly, telecommunications satellites to provide much needed infrastructure for economic development and bridging the digital divide.

Government support and the involvement of UK industry in the upcoming African Space Programme should enable a substantial return from investment in ARTES (communications payloads), MOSAIC (small satellites) and EO applications improving African lives with sustainable development.

Much focus has been given in Parliament, and in the media, of the importance of helping Africa find a sustainable way forward. British designed Earth observation instruments and satellites are monitoring the impact of Climate Change, natural resources, deforestation, crop failures and the impact of natural disasters on Africa's exposed populations. Nigeria First, the website of the Nigerian Office of Public Communications provides informaton on Nigeria's use of space technology.

Satellite-based mapping can also support aid operations so that decision makers in Africa and around the world to shape the right policies to reduce poverty or plan crops in Africa. For example, NigeriaSat-1 provides medium-resolution imagery with daily worldwide revisit for monitoring disasters.

SSTL work closely with developing nations, internationally acclaimed joint training initiatives with the University Of Surrey and Phd programmes forging strong relationships throughout the world. SSTL have pioneered technology for their satellites that reduce the cost for developing nations, whilst preserving the professionalism and project management essential to space engineering to change the economies space.

Starting today, SSTL will begin a regular space blog to keep the British society, the media and international space enthusiasts up to date.

This new blog will provide up to the minute updates on SSTL launches, British space news, European space programmes and trends in the space industry.

We hope that visitors from all backgrounds will find the blog informative, useful and exciting. To help with this process we have provided a number of categories so that visitors can filter the news that they require.

In addition to the blog, links are provided to press releases and multimedia such as video, wallpapers, images and mp3 audio interviews. Please keep an eye on the site for new podcasts, a new feature for the site.

A menu to help with this can be found on the right hand side of the text under the heading "categories". For example, click on the text link for "Business", and the blog is filtered to show updates on SSTL contracts, growth and acquisitions. If on the other hand, you are looking for the latest launch information simply click on "Launch News"

You may notice that there are RSS icons next to the text links, by clicking on these users can add the latest blog updates to their RSS reader or include it within their own blog or forum. One simple way to achieve this is to use the plugins that blog software such as Serendipity, Blogger and Wordpress provide.