Enhanced EO satellite UK-DMC-2 passes Test Readiness Review
Monday 23 June 2008
Second generation DMC satellites set sights on GMES
SSTL’s privately funded UK-DMC-2 has today passed its Test Readiness Review (TRR) at its Manufacturing Integration and Test Facilities in Guildford, UK. Scheduled for build completion in September 2008, the new Earth Observation satellite will provide higher performance imaging capabilities to the Disaster Monitoring Constellation which is operated by SSTL’s subsidiary DMCii.
UK-DMC-2 will carry an enhanced version of the DMC (Disaster Monitoring Constellation) wide area imaging system which will provide 600km wide swaths of the Earth in three spectral bands at a ground resolution of 22-metres. This is an advance on the current 32-metre DMC imager, which has been successfully providing imagery for over five years in the current constellation of five spacecraft.
The TRR (Test Readiness Review) assesses the status of the fully integrated spacecraft and the ability of DMC-UK-2 to begin its EVT (Environmental Validation and Test) campaign.
SSTL Business Development & Sales Director Paul Brooks summarised, "Our next generation of SSTL DMC satellites will have ten times the capability of the first generation, at the same price only five years after the first generation was launched."
In addition to the increased resolution payload, SSTL’s new DMC spacecraft offers increased capacity for information provision. By operating with DMCii’s international groundstation network, the new DMC spacecraft offer up to a ten times the capacity for data retrieval compared to first generation DMC satellites. These significant enhancements reflect SSTL’s unique approach to space engineering that provides state-of-the-art performance with minimal risk.
Spanish firm Deimos Imaging is also taking advantage of these new capabilities in Deimos-1, which is being built concurrently in the UK. Its large swath will allow Deimos-1 to undertake a double full coverage of Spain and Portugal every week, and a full coverage of Europe every 10 days.
DMCii Managing Director Dave Hodgson commented, "The improved resolution and capacity will enable the new DMC satellites to better meet European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program needs. We will also be able to offer our imaging customers more effective packages in applications such as monitoring deforestation and forest fires."
