Space blog - TopSat

Team TopSat earns RAeS award

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:55:46 +0000

Last week at the Royal Aeronautical Society awards ceremony , the team responsible for the successful TopSat Earth observation mission, was awarded the Society's Silver Medal.

"Team TopSat" collect RAeS award

TopSat was developed for the MOD and BNSC by QinetiQ, SSTL, RAL and Infoterra and has been collecting tactical 3m imagery of the Earth for more than two years, setting a new world record for "resolution per mass of satellite". The engineering model is now on display in the Science Museum.

The award was accepted on behalf of the TopSat team by Dr Stuart Eves, the godfather of the programme, and Jenny Harding, SSTL's Projects Director who managed the programme.

This is the fourth Royal Aeronautical Society award won by SSTL staff this year. The team responsible for GIOVE-A received the Team Silver Award as well as the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award, whilst Dr Mike Cutter was awarded the Society's Bronze Award for the design and manufacture of the CHRIS optical imaging system.

TopSat launched was launched in 2005. The small satellite's primary mission objective was to demonstrate that a microsatellite could deliver responsive high-resolution imagery directly from a satellite to ground terminals within the same footprint. Having fulfilled its original objectives, the satellite is now available for commercial service under the TopSat Consortium: QinetiQ (who own the satellite), SSTL, RAL and Infoterra, all original partners in the mission.

SSTL clock-up twin success in-orbit

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:00:34 +0000

Two high performance mircosatellites built by SSTL have entered their third year of in-orbit operations after delivering consistently outstanding results since their launch in October 2005.

Both satellites were designed and built by SSTL as Earth observation missions: Beijing-1 for China’s Beijing Landview Mapping Information Technology Ltd (BLMIT), and TopSat for British company QinetiQ on behalf of the UK Government.

TopSat

These two missions represented a significant development in capability and performance of small satellites, providing 2.5m resolution imagery onboard TopSat, and 4m for Beijing-1. The high performance cameras were designed and built in the UK by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and Sira Optronics respectively. Both satellites are built with highly agile attitude control systems that provide accurate pointing to enable several independent images to be targeted in rapid succession.

Beijing-1 was launched into the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), joining four other SSTL-built satellites for a multi-national consortium of owners. As well as contributing images to the DMC, the Chinese satellite is providing pollution and topography data to the Chinese government, much of which has been targeted at reducing pollutants in time for the 2008 Olympic Games to be hosted in the capital.

TopSat's primary mission objective was to demonstrate that a microsatellite could deliver responsive high-resolution imagery directly from a satellite to ground terminals within the same footprint. Having fulfilled its original objectives, the satellite is now available for commercial service under the TopSat Consortium: QinetiQ (who own the satellite), SSTL, RAL and Infoterra, all original partners in the mission.

Today, both satellites today share a common role in Low Earth Orbit, providing images for the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters, which is currently lead by SSTL’s subsidiary DMCii Ltd on behalf of the British National Space Centre (BNSC).

Just two years on, SSTL is developing the next generation DMC satellite for launch in 2009. The SSTL 300 platform will give users access to ever more demanding applications, including 10-metre PAN and 4-metre multi-spectral imaging and a throughput of more than 100 images per day.

Sira now forms SSTL’s Optical Payload Group, a 30-man team based at the company’s site in Sevenoaks UK, developing cutting-edge optics systems for space.

The DMC provide a unique Earth Observation resource that enables repeat daily imaging of anywhere in the world. Satellite owners contribute images, agreeing to provide 5% of their capacity free for daily imaging of disaster areas, whilst the majority of their capacity is available to support their independent imaging programs. This makes DMC membership particularly attractive to developing nations wishing to extend their reach without the prohibitive cost associated with larger satellites and “going it alone”.

DMCii Ltd coordinates the distribution and processing of the satellite image data.

Aliens at mission control Guildford

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:09:10 +0100

Can you spot the Alien? Image courtesy of TopSat Consortium

As part of Open University's "James May's 20th Century" television program, the Top Gear presenter visited Mission Control in Guildford. In the program James took a journey through the 20th century by "trying out for himself some of the most surprising and influential technological advances of the past hundred years".

James asked SSTL if he could 'borrow' a satellite to take a photograph of the Earth. Well, an area the size of a tennis court to be precise. A BBC production team, with the help of SSTL staff, spread white sheets on land adjacent to the small satellite manufacturer's headquarters in Guildford, carefully designed to represent a "Space Invader" alien when viewed from above. SSTL's operations team then programmed a series of images which did indeed capture the alien.

The satellite tasked for the image was TopSat. Weighing just 90kg, TopSat was designed and built by SSTL for UK-customer, QinetiQ. The 2.5m imaging system was designed and built by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The satellite, which was launched in October 2005, orbits 700km above the Earth and was designed as a technology demonstrator Earth observation mission for the UK Ministry of Defence.