Artist’s rendition of a satellite – mechanik/123RF Stock Photo
One of the latest Earth Observation (EO) satellite launches occurred on the 29th June when Rocket Lab launched seven small satellites into low-Earth orbits from its New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula launch site. The largest satellite of the Electron rocket’s payload was the EO microsatellite BlackSky Global-3, which is a high-resolution imager with a 1 m spatial resolution and a 30 km swath. BlackSky is hoping to launch a constellation of 60 imaging satellites, which will need to be replaced every three years.
In addition, the payload included the ACRUX-1 cubesat on behalf of the Melbourne Space Program that gives Australian students hands-on experience with space projects; and there were also two satellites for the United States Special Operations Command. Interestingly, Rocket Labs likes to give Electron missions unusual names. Last weeks was called ‘Make It Rain’ in reference to the city of Seattle which is the home base of Spaceflight, who purchased the mission. Previous names have included ‘Two Thumbs Up’, ‘That’s a Funny-Looking Cactus’, ‘It’s Business Time’, ‘Still Testing’ and ‘It’s a Test’.
Later this week, on the 6 July, the United Arab Emirates plans to launch Falcon Eye 1, its fourth reconnaissance satellite, from the French Guiana Space Centre. The satellite is equipped with the HiRI (High-Resolution Imager) imaging system with a ground resolution of 70 cm and a 20 km swath. The data will be used for mapping, agricultural monitoring, urban planning, and coastal monitoring. It is expected to be joined by Falcon Eye 2 later this year.
It was also announced this week that China’s HY-1C and HY-2B ocean observation satellites, which were launched in September and October last year respectively, have reached their designated orbits.
For HY-1C this is a sun-synchronous orbit at 798 km, and the satellite carries two instruments which are the China Ocean Colour & Temperature Scanner – with a reported spatial resolution of 50 m and a Coastal Zone Imager. Whereas, HY-2B is slightly higher at a 973 km altitude and is also in a sun-synchronous orbit. This is carrying a radar altimeter, microwave radiometer and a scatterometer.
They are China’s best marine remote sensing satellites and between them, they will help monitor ocean colour, global sea surface wind field, wave height and sea surface temperature. This will support marine disaster relief, ocean resources utilization and marine environmental protection. Although, it also hoped the satellites will also provide support for transport and agriculture.
The last piece of news also comes from China where it announced it has plans to deploy a constellation of almost 200 artificial intelligence (AI) based EO satellites by 2021. The satellites will be built by a private company, ADASpace, based in the Sichuan Province. It will consist of 192 satellites equipped with AI systems and will have varied spatial resolutions of 5 m, 1 m and 0.5 m.
It’s hoped that the constellation will operate under AI management, although there is are issues to resolved to achieve this. The aims are twofold:
- Data Processing: The AI technology on-board will process the captured images and will remove low-quality images, and only transmit higher quality images back to Earth. It will also assess any adjustments it needs to make to the sensor, improving the overall efficiency of the solution.
- Self-cordination: The constellation will have a self-coordination function, although the full details of this function are still to be determined.
The data will be used for disaster prevention and response, environmental monitoring and traffic management.
Again, an interesting week showing how the industry continues to grow, expand and look to new frontiers.
