TopSat - The high quality, affordable imaging satellite for future constellations
- Paper number
IAC-06-B5.4.08
- Author
Mr. Richard Blott, Qinetiq Ltd., United Kingdom
- Year
2006
- Abstract
TopSat is a UK national imaging technology satellite, created to demonstrate the utility of performant but low-cost micro-satellite systems, to support evaluation of information management structures for tasking and dissemination of imagery, and to enhance both collaboration and capability within the UK’s small satellite industrial community Following a five-year design and development programme, TopSat was launched on 27th October 2005 as part of a 5- satellite payload on a Russian Cosmos vehicle into a 686 km altitude sun- synchronous orbit. Within 90 minutes (one orbit) of launch, the first telemetry was already being received at the ground station, and the satellite has since been generating excellent imagery. Following its commissioning phase, TopSat entered an initial exploitation phase in early January 2006. The project has been funded by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through the British National Space Centre (BNSC) under BNSC’s MOSAIC small satellite initiative. The UK industrial consortium charged with designing, building and operating TopSat comprises QinetiQ, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and Infoterra Ltd. The TopSat micro-satellite, mass 108kg, provides an electro-optical imaging capability, delivering panchromatic images at 2.8m resolution, and multispectral images at 5.6m resolution per day respectively, each image representing a 17km square of the Earth’s surface. Imagery is downlinked to QinetiQ’s 13 m ground station located at West Freugh, Scotland. A mobile ground station will also be used to provide data delivery directly to a local user, within minutes of acquisition by the satellite. Payload tasking is carried out at the Payload Operations Centre at Farnborough where commands are generated and up-linked via the SSTL ground control station in Guildford. The main factor limiting the effectiveness of any satellite in low earth orbit is the time taken to revisit any particular point on Earth. – For a single satellite this can run to several days. The low cost, high performance capability demonstrated by TopSat opens the way for affordable constellations in LEO, thereby mitigating this issue. Combining TopSat’s demonstrated capabilities with more recent advances in optical and other technologies can provide users with a cost-effective operational constellation of satellites, typically offering metre-class resolution imagery, with revisit times measured in hours rather than days.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-B5.4.08.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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