Space blog

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.

Competition is hotting up as young students throughout the UK start work on their bid for the BNSC funded Space Experiment competition. The basic idea is to create an experiment that fits into a 10cm X 10 cm X 10 cm box. The student that wins will get expert help from SSTL and an astronomical £100,000 to support their efforts. If that sounds good, here's the best bit

The winning experiment will be flown on-board a real SSTL satellite in space.

Baffled? Cautious? Visit the Space Experiment website and get some ideas flowing.

Initial proposals are due in by the end of February so if you haven't entered already - get your skates on! If you are a parent or teacher and you know students that have a passion for science and technology - get your teenage students involved.

For those of you who missed our Space Experiment blog, here's some more details... and hopefully inspiration.

Why encourage more students to study science and engineering?

There has been a worrying decline in the number of students studying mathematics, science, engineering and technology subjects. The proof is evidenced by a 30% decrease in physics, a 25% decrease in mathematics, and a 19% decrease in chemistry entries at A level between 1991 and 2003. These are some of the most practical and strategically important subjects and could lead to skills gaps in industry, the risks to Britain’s economic success and a threat to Britain’s’ international reputation as a leader in science research. Source: Lord May, President of the Royal Society testimony to the Parliamentary Scientific Committee in May 2004.

School children find science and mathematics dull and difficult and do not see its relevance in their lives. Source; SET for Success Report for Sir Gareth Roberts Review for HM Treasury.

Why space and not something more ...practical?

Britain has a thriving space industry adds £7 billion to the British economy each year and supports 70,000 jobs, not just in the space research institutes and higher profiles but also in the vital high tech engineering companies that supply parts and technologies for use in space.

Space is one of the highest skilled workforces in the Britain and the technologies developed for satellites and missions to other planets can benefit the whole engineering sector, both in terms of available skills and also the creation of new technologies. Some of these technologies are "space-enabled". For example, Britain leads the world in global mobile satellite communications, earth observation, space enabled creative industries and in planetary science.

Space is key to sustainable development and can be used to map sea temperature changes, provide communications in the case of disaster relief and open up new opportunities in healthcare and new energy sources.

The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (better know as INPE) has placed a contract for a third year with DMC International Imaging Ltd to acquire high-resolution satellite images of the entire 5 million square kilometres of the Amazon rainforest. Since 2004 INPE’s programme to monitor deforestation has dramatically reduced the rate of logging from 27,000 sq.km. per year to about 10,000 sq.km. in 2007.

In order to rapidly identify areas of cover change, DMCii is contracted to provide three repeat coverages in 2007 (June-July, July-August, September-October). In 2005, and again in 2006, DMC imaged the whole Amazon Basin in 6 weeks to provide Brazil with vital information to help monitor deforestation and combat illegal logging.

DMC imagery is provided by the five-satellite international Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). The DMC small satellites, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), use wide area cameras to capture the high-resolution images. The latest satellite, built for China, was launched into the DMC on 27 October 2005. Two new DMC satellites will be launched in 2008 and a third in 2009.

Speaking at the Royal Society in London, 25th October, Dr. Gilberto Camâra, Director General of INPE said,

“The DMC data is an important affordable contribution to our assessment of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. The constellation is able to rapidly acquire and deliver high quality imagery so that we have up-to-date information to focus our efforts. It is our intention to develop a long term relationship with DMC”

The increasing amount of DMC imagery required by INPE since 2005 demonstrates the value of rapid revisit imaging. When the new DMC satellites launch in 2008, these will add considerably to INPE’s ability to monitor and combat changes in the rainforest and their consequences for both the local people and the global climate.

The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) help Brazilian society to benefit from new developments in space science and technology. This includes increasing Brazil's autonomy in a number of strategic areas, providing the means for Brazilian industry to participate and become competitive in the space area and encouraging the development and dissemination of space technology.

INPE has developed a near or almost real time monitoring application for deforestation detection known as the Real Time Deforestation Monitoring System (DETER) system. High-resolution imagery is needed when estimating the total area of deforestation and when identifying small clearings.

When it's not coordinating the response to natural disasters, DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) supplies remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMC data is now used in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping.

Last Monday at the 21st AIAA / USU Conference on Small Satellites , SSTL announced that they have been awarded a contract for the study phase of a potential joint US-UK lunar orbiter mission to be called Magnolia.

This first phase of the contract will run for 9-months, resulting in a preliminary design. The contract also includes a package of training from SSTL and the University of Surrey, that will share the know-how accrued by SSTL over the last 25 years with Mississippi State University (MSU) and NASA Stennis Space Center to lower the cost of future missions to the Moon.

MSU’s David Shaw stated:

“MSU is committed to developing a small satellite capability in Mississippi and believes that SSTL is the best partner with whom to achieve that aim”. SSTL’s founder and Group Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting, added: “We are delighted to be working with our US partners on this programme and look forward to the exciting possibility of a joint US-UK lunar mission. SSTL is committed to driving down the cost of space missions in Earth orbit and beyond.”

This isn't the first time SSTL have worked on lunar missions. Last year, SSTL performed a lunar exploration design study for the UK government’s Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (now subsumed into the newly created Science & Technology Facilities Council). The study was supported by a group of UK scientists and showed the feasibility of a pair of low cost missions known as MoonLITE and MoonRaker.

In the past, SSTL has developed equipment for interplanetary missions such as the Rosetta comet chaser and recently delivered a payload processor for a US radar to fly onboard the 2008 Indian lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1. Looking further into space, SSTL has performed a European Space Agency feasibility study for a low cost mission to Venus and has studied potential missions to near-Earth asteroids and Earth re-entry for the future return of samples from Mars. Magnolia marks SSTL’s next step beyond low Earth Orbit.

The contract follows a UK-US cooperation agreement on lunar exploration activities. The next phase of the Magnolia mission is planned to start in 2008 and could lead to the launch of the mission in 2010.