Finally after almost ten (10) years after the first satellite TiungSAT-1
RazakSAT to orbit the Near equatorial orbit (NEqO – 635km from the earth surface ) also known as Low Earth Orbit.
Check for detail about Orbit [wikipedia] and Low Earth Orbit
from GeoEYE project, which is been adopted by Google Earth.
http://www.geoeye.com/CorpSite/gallery/default.aspx
more less 2m resolution will be twice the quality of the above image ?
let's wait .. if I recalled correctly... the first image of RazakSAT will be featured in "FrontPage" of every newspaper in Malaysia..
wait until 21st April 2009..
HawkEYE is not a derivative of any the above satellite though.. .. 8-)
p/s : how much is the cost for GeoEYE and what will the RazakSAT total cost ?
might also one to consider the following into the account :
-- lifetime of a satellite.
-- total payload.
-- the purpose.
source :
1. Medium-sized aperture camera for earth observation
2. Development of engineering model of medium-sized aperture camera system
3. GeoEYE
4. RazakSAT Detail from ATSB.
Medium-sized aperture camera for earth observation
Kim, Eugene D.; Choi, Young-Wan; Kang, Myung-Seok; Kim, Ee-Eul; Yang, Ho-Soon; Rasheed, Ad. Aziz Ad.; Arshad, Ahmad Sabirin
In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Space Optics (ICSO 2004), 30 March - 2 April 2004, Toulouse, France. Ed.: B. Warmbein. ESA SP-554, Noordwijk, Netherlands: ESA Publications Division, ISBN 92-9092-865-4, 2004, p. 137 - 140
Satrec Initiative and ATSB have been developing a medium-sized aperture camera (MAC) for an earth observation payload on a small satellite. Developed as a push-broom type high-resolution camera, the camera has one panchromatic and four multispectral channels. The panchromatic channel has 2.5m, and multispectral channels have 5m of ground sampling distances at a nominal altitude of 685km. The 300mm-aperture Cassegrain telescope contains two aspheric mirrors and two spherical correction lenses. With a philosophy of building a simple and cost-effective camera, the mirrors incorporate no light-weighting, and the linear CCDs are mounted on a single PCB with no beam splitters. MAC is the main payload of RazakSAT to be launched in 2005. RazakSAT is a 180kg satellite including MAC, designed to provide high-resolution imagery of 20km swath width on a near equatorial orbit (NEqO). The mission objective is to demonstrate the capability of a high-resolution remote sensing satellite system on a near equatorial orbit. This paper describes the overview of the MAC and RarakSAT programmes, and presents the current development status of MAC focusing on key optical aspects of Qualification Model.
Available online 17 November 2004.
Abstract
SaTReCi and ATSB are developing medium-sized aperture camera (MAC) system for earth observation. Following the first model, the development of the engineering model (EM) was completed. The optical subsystem incorporates a conventional approach of using low-expansion optical and structural materials. It is a 300-mm on-axis system with two aspheric mirrors and two field correction lenses. It has five linear detectors aligned on its focal plane together with proximity electronics. The electronics subsystem consists of five modules; two for management and control in cold redundancy, two for image data storage and one for power supply. EM was developed to have a storage capacity of 16 Gbits, which can be easily increased to 32 Gbits by adding memory packs for following models. EM weighs about 41.9 kg and consumes about 45.4 W of peak power.
Characteristics and Capabilities
Spatial characteristics:
2.5m for panchromatic and 5.0m for multi-spectral with swath width of 2.0km. This allows for mapping scales of 1:25000 and 1:50000.
Spectral characteristic:
Spectral range covers visible to near infrared. Main features of the Earth can be identified and classified with advanced processing.im1
Radiometric resolution:
8-bit. This enables Earth features to be represented in 256 digital levels.
Temporal resolution:
Up to 14 times of imaging opportunities per day over tropical area in ±9° latitude from the equator. Tilting is possible for further deviations of up to ±30°.