An innovative small camera, which will cost a fifth of the price of other comparable cameras, will fly on Topsat (Tactical Optical Satellite), one of three new small satellite projects recently announced by Science Minister Lord Sainsbury.
The camera, designed and developed at the CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), will produce black and white images with 2.5-meter resolution and colour images of 5-metre resolution.
The 100Kg microsatellite will be built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and the programme will be managed by the Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA). The satellite, co-funded by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), will be launched in early 2003.
Nigel Morris, who is project manager for the camera, was delighted that the Topsat project had been successful. “This project gives Britain an opportunity to demonstrate how its world-class technology can be used to make space imaging affordable for the user”.
The decision by BNSC to fund such a satellite will allow the UK to develop innovative and low cost alternative to the current expensive optical satellites and will give a real opportunity for users to understand better how to apply such imagery. The ground stations for receiving the images will be mobile and will, for example, allow the MoD to investigate the benefits of direct data reception in a tactical environment.
The RAL camera images will be able to be used by a number of organisations. The National Remote Sensing Centre will be responsible for marketing products derived from the imagery for such applications as:
* Environmental change and disaster monitoring * Cartography for civil engineering and town planning * Forestry/habitat mapping * Offshore pollution monitoring for government agencies and oil companies * Crop identification for EU member states
Education should be a major beneficiary of the images from the RAL camera. Selected images from the camera will be placed on the web to enable UK schools to investigate the many uses for high resolution optical data. Pupils will be able to develop their own projects and, through the BNSC, compete for the opportunity to task the satellite themselves in order to produce the specific images required to meet their particular project objective.
This low cost microsatellite will demonstrate the concept of a constellation of optical satellites. These will continuously monitor the earth for the benefit of world agriculture, disaster monitoring, pollution control and the many and varied uses that a global window on the world can bring.
