Small Satellites. from dream to reality. Professor Sir Martin Sweeting OBE FRS FREng Executive Chairman, SSTL Director, Surrey Space Centre

Transcription

1 Small Satellites from dream to reality Professor Sir Martin Sweeting OBE FRS FREng Executive Chairman, SSTL Director, Surrey Space Centre 3rd Nano-Satellite Symposium, Kitakyushu, December 2011 Space is important to everyone The use of space is expanding and in the last decade has become an essential infrastructure for national economies, well-being and security. and in contributing to international efforts on the environment and climate. Communications Timing Agriculture Disasters

2 Space missions have been evolving from this. to this. Big satellites to small satellites High cost low cost Long timescales rapid response What are Small Satellites? = f (Mass + Time + Cost + Utility) innovative use of the latest technologies

3 Small satellites at Surrey By exploiting enormous commercial investments in microelectronics, we can now build highly capable, low-cost, rapid-response and reliable operational small satellites built using the latest COTS terrestrial technologies 1 st microsatellite (1981) GIOVE-A (2005) DMC N2 (2011) Changing the Economics of Space A story of a space dream that became reality 6 th October 2011 marked the 30 th anniversary of the launch of Surrey s first satellite in 1981 and the beginning of the modern microsatellite era But how did it all begin?

4 A long time ago Fascination with communications since a kid Army cadet - HF communications 10 years HF operations experience Apollo lunar landings - film 2001 BSc in Electronics at Surrey PhD in HF antennas for vehicles How did it all begin Amateur radio experimented with 10GHz Gunn oscillators & TV links across Guildford kite-borne film cameras imaging ground

5 Amateur radio satellites Started listening to amateur radio satellites US amateurs asked for help to preserve AMSAT-OSCAR-6 batteries Set up simple command station at UoS in spare time from PhD Begged equipment from industry Extended useful lifetime of AO-6 by 18 months Learned practicalities of satellite tracking & communications without computers! Weather satellites Persuaded UK Navy to give AA-gun mount to mount tracking antennas Tracking NOAA & METEOR weather satellites wet paper printers Built first(?) UK digital weather satellite image display discrete logic circuits

6 The germ of an idea Realised the potential of modern, low power micro-electronic circuits to achieve highly capable functions within a physically small satellite satellite structure Crazy idea that a small university team in the UK could emulate AMSAT and build a tiny satellite and launch it - and do something useful! Persuaded the University and UK industry to support a first satellite project raised ~ 220k from industry & govt. labs in cash & kind and now to build a satellite Team: 2 staff & 2 students Funds: 220k cash & kind Facilities:1 room (20 sq.m) clean-room built from DIY store Enthusiasm Why not spirit Help from many friends

7 How did we start Knowing very little about satellite construction Electronics ideas from radio amateurs (AMSAT) Mechanical advice from industry (BAe) Test advice from MoD (RAE) Launch advice from NASA-GSFC/DELTA Persuaded everyone to contribute time & effort Did whatever was necessary Were not afraid to ask Did not take no & impossible for an answer Wanted to succeed -- but were not afraid to fail UoSAT-1 microsatellite Built between Team of 12 people 4 full-time 8 part-time (academics) many helpers Red/bue tape pcb layouts by hand Many late nights All weekends No holidays! Counted every penny! Learned as we went! Made do with what we had

8 UoSAT-1 microsatellite 1981 UoSAT-1 in orbit - 6th Oct 1981 Operations the next challenge..

9 but UoSAT-1 near disaster 1982 learned many lessons satellite locked-up for 3 months Recovered using 3MW eirp VHF transmitter at Stanford USA UoSAT-1 the first modern microsatellite with re-programmable onboard computers and a 2-D CCD array imager with 256x256 pixels. 1983

10 Bitten by the bug UoSAT years later NASA offered a second free launch on Delta BUT A race against the clock only 6 months to design, build & test UoSAT-2 microsatellite team of ~20 people (6 f/t) Early use of ECAD for pcbs 20-hour days 7 days/week for 6 months But we did it just 01 March 1984 Still transmitting today!

11 UoSAT Groundstation 1986 BBC Microcomputers automated telemetry, telecommand UoSAT-2 near disaster 1984 Satellite lost 3 days after launch but communications re-established after 3 months of day & night operations fault identified satellite mission fully recovered and still transmitting today!

12 How to continue UK had just cancelled its national satellite programme University had insufficient funds for this size of research programme UoSAT team could bid for UK research council funding and succeeded in getting ~ 750k in between to develop technologies for smallsats But NO funding for missions How to continue UoS funded UoSAT-2 ( 0.5M in 1984) - but could not repeat this investment Surrey needed to establish a commercial company to attract & handle external funding to build satellites SSTL formed in 1985 Wholly-owned by UoS Objective: to fund academic research in small satellites at Surrey Starting capital: 100

13 The move into business 1990 s MailStar LEO comms study for SSC VHF Groundstations for Pakistan Navigation satellite study for ESA (!) UoSAT-C designed but launch evaporated Traditional skeleton structure inflexible Layered module-box structure concept UoSAT-4 lost in space 1990 First launch on Ariane ASAP UoSAT-4 worked at switch-on 5 hrs after launch Then silence. No response to commands Stanford dish used to listen for local oscillators 10 hrs DSP detected LO with doppler Proved power system ok Led to transmitter outgassing Simulated on ground QED?

14 SSTL Groundstation 1995 The move to PCs and automated operations Commercial missions 1990 s UoSAT-3,4 5 research with ESA payloads KiTSAT-1 the first KHTT satellite with Korea HealthSat, S80-T LEO comms CERISE/Clementine (French MoD) Portugal, Thailand, Malaysia, China Launch on ARIANE ASAP 1 st commercial launch for microsatellites

15 UoSAT-5: the first useful EO images kg 512x512 2-D CCD array 1km GSD NIR Multispectral EO microsatellites ThaiPhatt kg microsatellite 80m GSD 3 band 3x Area CCD arrays 1024x1024 pixels

16 Minisatellites a technology demonstration 300kg mini-satellite funded from our own business Microsatellites for LEO Communications Digital S&F communications to remote regions Early internet (1990 s) Advanced DSP payloads Signal monitoring & analysis Single satellite provided global reach French ESSIAM system

17 S un S en sor (1 1) (1 0) (8 ) (7 ) (6 ) (5 ) (4 ) (3 ) (2 ) (1 ) VH F A nt en nas A t ta ch F it ti ng T ip mass Earth O bs erv ation Pla tfo rm (EOP) Bo om (St owe d) M a gne to m et er A titude Determination, Control and Safety Module IOX U QP CERTO PBe X Power Module D ownlink Module U plink Module B attery Module UQ P O n-boa rd Com pute r Module O n-boa rd Com pute r Module C E R TO An te nna Telemetry and Telecommand Module GP S UHF A nt enn as I O X an t enn a Eart ho bservat ion C ompar tment ( EOC ) Taking the Internet into space UoSAT-12: became the world's first web server in space on 25 January 2001, transferring real-time telemetry and stored image data directly to the user. The demonstration was carried out with the OMNI Lab of NASA/GSFC. UK-DMC: carrying a Cisco router in 2005 demonstrated the power of microsatellites + internet with the USAF VMOC USAF SSTL Task secure Internet image Technology Verification USAF-STP FCT PICOSat G PS Polymer batteries Ionospheric tomography Ultra-quiet platform

18 Mission detects broad-band emission from different types of lightning Flight experiment of LANL s new FPGA-based software radio for VHF/UHF spectrum monitoring Atmospheric Research CFESat Launched on USAF ATLAS EELV Cape Canaveral March 2007 Space Weather The effects of the space radiation environment on modern COTS components Earth Earth S.Atlantic Anomaly SEUs induced by SAA Monitoring solar flares and their effects on the on-board systems

19 Constellations & Swarms Constellations and Swarms of small satellites achieve an affordable capability: Rapid revisit increased temporal resolution Contemporaneous data gathering data merging Particularly for Earth observation & surveillance International Constellation: DMC Disaster Monitoring Constellation Novel International Collaboration 6 countries Individual satellite ownership Collaborative operation Data sharing and exchange Daily imaging worldwide (600km swaths) National, disaster and commercial use

20 DMC in the International Charter International charter space and major disasters Activations nearly every week 200 rapid response images per year from DMC typically same day delivery DMCii provides on-call duty 24/7 one week in eight Emergency On-Call Officers to coordinate data acquisition from multiple satellites DMC: Large area imaging

21 Earth Observation business Commercial, Government and Humanitarian Land usage Mineral features 41 High Resolution Imaging Small section of 3,000 km strip at 4-m GSD pan from Beijing-1 microsatellite

22 Data Fusion: simultaneous MS & PAN Pan-sharpened 4-metre m/s image from Beijing-1 microsatellite Launch of NigeriaSat-2/X launch: 17 August 2011 on Dnepr from Yasny 2.5m PAN 5m 4-band multispectral 19m 4-band multispectral 320km swath 7 year life 12M s/c For NASRDA (Nigeria) significantly enhancing Africa s ability to monitor its environment

23 N-X: 1 st image 3 days after launch (20m GSD m/s 600km swath) 2.5-metre GSD pan-sharpened m/s

24 The next generation 1-metre resolution EO imaging constellation 3 satellites to be launched in 2014 New commercial business model for providing EO capacity services through DMCii 100% imaging capacity of first 3 satellites already contracted by China for 7 years for 115M Radar remote sensing: NovaSAR constellation NovaSAR Low-Cost ( 45M) S-band SAR satellite Maritime surveillance De-forestation, flood monitoring 4 Modes: 6-30m resolution Airborne demonstrator flown 400kg ready in 2014 SSTL & ASTRIUM UK HMG announced co-funding the first demonstration mission

25 GALILEO: Navigation for ESA GIOVE-A: to secure Europe s Galileo navigation system SSTL Built by SSTL in 30 months, 30M, launched on time; 660kg 6 years operations in MEO exceeding its 2.5 years planned operational lifetime GALILEO: FOC for EU/ESA OHB + SSTL GALILEO Full Operational Constellation 14 satellites first phase SSTL payloads OHB platforms Delivery for launch in

26 SSTL Small Geostationary platform SSTL small platform for MEO, GEO, HEO & Interplanetary missions Key parameters: 15 year design life modular & flexible design kg (wet mass) payload 300kg, 4.5kW, ~32 active transponders Flight heritage: ESA GIOVE-A (2005-) Development with ESA ARTES-4 Ready for flight in 2014 UK Technology Demonstration Satellite Series of UKSA technology demonstration & verification missions for on-orbit flight experience for next-generation technologies. 150kg minisatellites SSTL platform, 40 Mbps d/link Payloads from industry and academia TDS-1 experiment payload contributors SSTL Surrey Space Centre Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Langton Star Centre Cranfield University MSSL Oxford University Satellite Services Ltd Staying at the forefront of small satellite capabilities for our customers

27 SNAP-1 nanosatellite 1998 and next On-board SmartPhone SSTL & SSC STRaND nanosatellite launch in 2012

28 then CubeSail SSTL & Astrium sponsored mission to demonstrate solar sail deployment, solar sailing and de-orbiting technology for debris removal using a STRaND nanosatellite as the core spacecraft. Unique sail ACS and sail deployment mechanism developed by SSC AAReST (SSC & JPL) AAReST(2014) SSC R&D programme with CalTech and NASA/JPL to demonstrate autonomous in-orbit robotic assembly and reconfiguration of a multi-mirror space telescope Mirrorcraft based on STRaND nanosat with RDV and docking technology

29 Beyond Earth already around the Moon.. Indian Lunar Mission (Chandrayaan-1) Built part of radar payload that first detected water on the Moon SSTL in 2011 SSTL: spin-out from University of Surrey (1985) now owned by EADS (2009) 450 staff; 100M revenues (2011); 500M exports; 20% y-y growth Small satellites for operational missions (SSTL) and services (DMCii) end-to-end: design, manufacture, integration, test, launch services, orbital operations rapid response (15-18 months), low cost ( 10-20M), high capability

30 Surrey Space Centre Surrey Space Centre: ~100 academic researchers specialising in space engineering, small satellite techniques & academic training (MSc, PhD). SSC+SSTL: synergy of academic research and commercial exploitation SSTL: 30 years of real experience 36 satellites launched since 1981 Nano-micro-mini-satellites (6 600kg) 25 international customers Fixed price; delivered on time & in budget 100% mission success in last 10 years 24 launches on 9 different launchers >250 satellite-years on-orbit operations experience DELTA ARIANE TSYKLON ZENIT SS18/Dnepr COSMOS ATHENA SOYUZ ATLAS

31 International colleagues USA Nigeria* Turkey* Algeria* Widening access to space Launch first national microsatellite & demonstrate its applications & utility Korea China Malaysia* Singapore Train engineers as nucleus of a space agency & industry Algeria Thailand Chile* Establish national space facilities & capabilities Portugal S.Korea S. Africa Six space agencies trained Nigeria Portugal Pakistan Thailand Malaysia Chile Current Projects Kanopus Sapphire ADS-1B Kazakhstan ESMO Galileo TDS-1 DMC3 EarthCare Sentinel-5P Vniiem, Russia (3 satellite platforms) Canadian surveillance of space mission Commercial AIS satellite for COM DEV Medium resolution imaging mission European Student Moon Orbiter 14 Navigation payloads UK government TechDemoSat 3 x 1m imaging satellites ESA payload ESA payload

32 Summary It has been a long journey but very stimulating Great perseverance and stamina is needed to succeed A combination of skills is required: Technical Managerial Financial Marketing It is still not easy Space is challenging and unforgiving But it is exciting and rewarding Arigato gozaimas!