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(7 October 2013) Com Dev Europe has been selected to provide the Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) Transponder equipment to Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) for the first six spacecraft in the Formosat-7 global weather forecasting programme.

This press release follows an earlier release (25th February 2013) which had identified the Authorisation to Proceed but at that time could not identify the customer. The total contract, worth more than CDN $4m, will be fulfilled at its facility in UK over a two-year period and involves the initial build of 14 units with options for an additional 12 units to be ordered in 2013 or 2014.

TT&C transponders are the vital communications link between the spacecraft and ground stations and are therefore critical to the day-to-day operation and success of any mission. Com Dev Europe has an impeccable reliability record of delivering space equipment for well over 27 years working with all the world’s prime satellite manufacturers. It undertakes leading edge R&D activities to update its product portfolio and specialises in the development and supply of spacecraft communication equipment including Inter-Satellite Links, Transponders/Transceivers and DownLink Communication equipment. Using heritage parts data and advanced design techniques, a product has been proven that combines the high performance of modern devices with proven reliability at an affordable cost. The transponder gained flight heritage in 2012 with the launch of the exactView-1 mission and further flight heritage will be obtained with the launch of the M3M spacecraft expected in late 2013.

The Com Dev Europe transponder combines a very light, compact and efficient design employing the latest Gallium Nitride (GaN) power amplifier technology and cutting edge digital signal processing techniques. The design uses commercially available components (ESA class-3) and is free from ITAR restrictions. It is also based on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology to allow a flexible approach for different mission types and phases.

The development and qualification of the equipment was part-funded through the European Space Agency ARTES programme, with support from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. The support that is given to UK companies enables them to invest in leading-edge product developments with large potential export benefits.

Com Dev Europe’s President, Rob Spurrett, said, “We have developed an excellent working relationship with SSTL during the initial phases of the programme and looking forward to continuing this to the successful delivery of the programme. The fact that SSTL have selected our unit for this high profile international mission makes me extremely proud, and we believe endorses the technologically advanced nature of the product and its value for money for the wider space market.”

About Com Dev Europe

Com Dev Europe (CDE) is subsidiary of Com Dev International, a leading global designer and manufacturer of space hardware subsystems. Founded in 1985 and based in Aylesbury, United Kingdom, CDE supplies complex equipment, technology solutions and subsystems for space applications with equipment supplied on over 85 space programmes. Its customer base includes all the major space satellite providers as well as government institutions.

(source: Com Dev International)

AIDF Food Security Summit: Asia 2013 is hosted by UN ESCAP (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) in Bangkok, Thailand on the 26-27 November 2013.


Event Details

  • Title of event: AIDF: Food Security: Asia 2013
  • Location: Bangkok, Thailand
  • Start date: 26th November 2013
  • End date:27th November 2013
  • General contact email address: agradzewicz@aidforumonline.org
  • General contact name: Agnes Gradzewicz
  • General telephone number: +44 (0)20 7871 0123 ext: 242

Short summary
AIDF Food Security Summit: Asia 2013 is hosted by UN ESCAP (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) in Bangkok, Thailand on the 26-27 November 2013. The two day summit will address issues surrounding food security and malnutrition in the Asia Pacific regions. It is a must attend summit for NGO, UN, government and business organisations.

Detailed summary
AIDF Food Security Summit: Asia is the must attend summit for NGO, UN, government and business organisations to build public-private partnerships with the vision of tackling food insecurity and malnutrition in the Asia-Pacific regions.
Following successful events in Geneva and Washington DC, 1,000 participants from around the world came together for the inaugural AIDF Asia-Pacific on the 30-31 January 2013 in Bangkok. Unique to the Asia-Pacific region, AIDF brought together a large number of key practitioners and was met with widespread support. The forum highlighted a need for ongoing networking, targeted dialogue and an exploration of strategic alliances on a more intimate level. In response to this we are hosting the AIDF Food Security Summit: Asia 2013, a two day summit that will feature high-level delegates and continue important discussions started at AIDF Asia-Pacific, with a particular focus on the specific regional issues surrounding food security, agriculture and malnutrition. The agenda has been produced in conjunction with partners and expert advisors from bodies including World Vision, UNESCAP, USAID and many more.

Booking details
To register for the event please visit www.aidforumonline.org/registration or contact Agnes Gradzewicz: agradzewicz@aidforumonline.org.

Venue
UN ESCAP headquarters, Bangkok
76 Rajadamnern Nok Ave Phranakorn, Bangkok 10200, Thailand

‘‘Governments, companies, international agencies and civil society groups are looking for new approaches to food security and agricultural growth, leveraging new investments while ensuring sustainability for communities and the environment.’’

Conference Brochure
www.aidforumonline.org

(September 2013) CGIAR Research Programs on Water, Land & Ecosystems (WLE) and Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) are conducting a project focusing on flood impact mitigation using geospatial flood inundation mapping.

The objective is to provide regional and national decision-makers with accurate information to understand the benefits of inundation as well as the need to provide protection from the damaging impacts of floods, to help farmers in selected areas to optimize the use of floodwaters for growing crops and to assist insurance companies to assess/monitor risks when floods damage agricultural land.

A number of products and services that are relevant to floods will be provided. Data provided by optical and radar satellites are used to generate maps of flood inundation in a short period of time. Optical satellites such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), LANDSAT, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite, etc., are easy to use and generally preferred to map floodrisk areas, damage and impact assessment. The advantage of radar images can be used in all weather conditions, and is highly suitable for flood mapping and ideal for flood monitoring, particularly in complex hydrologic.

Read more at CIGAR WLE

Source UN-Spider

(26 September 2013) In the context of its climate change adaptation efforts, the Philippine government has begun producing 3D flood hazard maps to help make better planning decisions about flood risks, as trust.org reported.

The Philippines are a country heavily affected by devastating floods and strong precipitation.

“We consider this new map as relevant especially as a tool to make local land use plans truly based on risk – not only historical risks but future risks based on rainfall scenarios. We cannot be planning long term development based on yesterday’s event, but must factor in future climate risks,” said Mary Ann Lucille Sering, secretary of the country’s Climate Change Commission.

Trust.org reported: “The maps, which will provide up-to-date scientific data and analysis on local-scale flooding and climate risks, are being created using 3D technology as part of the Climate Change Commission’s efforts to adapt the Philippines to the impacts of climate change. The data, laid on top of existing maps, helps highlight areas that could face future flooding. The map identifies areas most vulnerable to flooding with a gradation of colour – the darker the hue, the deeper the water. For instance, the purple colour shows how high water might rise if heavy rainfall occurs.”

Read more at Trust.org

Source UN-Spider

After four years of field research and analytic support provided to the Republic of Haiti and multiple partners there, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) has launched the Haiti GeoPortal, as CIESIN reported on their website

CIESIN elaborates: “The Haiti Geoportal is a platform for spatial and environmental data and resources from ongoing research in Haiti as part of the broader Haiti Research and Policy Program at the Earth Institute (EI) at Columbia University.

Featuring an online interactive map component, the Haiti Geoportal is designed to let communities and partners download maps that provide benchmarks for core integrated development indicators, household socio-economic variables, and environmental features. The data covers geographic extents that range from national scale to local communities in Haiti. The Web site contains a data library and a searchable bibliography of materials from the EI and non-EI, including scientific reports and literature and data visualization videos produced to help articulate multi-hazard risk in the watershed of Port-à-Piment

The Haiti Geo-Portal has been supported by numerous partner organizations and funders. The data has been collected from other organizations and generated from field studies conducted by EI teams through the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Haiti Reconstruction Fund via the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Green Family Foundation, and the Earth Institute.”

Read more at Haiti GeoPortal at CIESIN

Source


In the field

In motion

Business Corner

Source Copernicus Observer

(30 September 2013) Harris Corporation has delivered a system that will help prepare National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite operators for the new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R (GOES-R) Series weather satellites.

The new Mission Management Capability enables operators to prepare ground-based satellite command and control operations and processes more than two years ahead of the launch of the first GOES-R satellite. A NOAA and NASA team also will use the Harris system to test the command and control procedures with the satellite as it is assembled by mission partner Lockheed Martin.

The Harris system consists of hardware, software, and a graphical user interface; the Harris OS/COMET telemetry, tracking, and command software; as well as tools for customizing mission operations.

“This is a critical milestone in a program that will rely on the effectiveness of a proven ground system and skilled satellite operators to prepare and test procedures that will be used during launch and satellite operations,” said Romy Olaisen, vice president, Civil Programs, Harris Government Communications Systems. “This system will allow NOAA satellite operators to become familiar with how to effectively manage the satellites using new command and control interfaces and the Harris OS/COMET tool suite.”

Harris is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the contract to produce the GOES-R Ground Segment, which will process approximately 40 times more data than is possible today, and deliver weather products to NOAA’s National Weather Service and more than 10,000 other direct users. GOES-R will be a primary tool for detecting and tracking hurricanes and severe weather.

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 125 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $5 billion of annual revenue and about 14,000 employees — including 6,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications® products, systems and services.

(source: Harris and Spacenewsfeed)

The European Space Agency (ESA) magnetic field mission Swarm is being prepared for a November launch from Plesetsk cosmodrome. The Swarm mission comprises a three satellite constellation, and is unique within ESA’s growing in orbit fleet of Earth Explorer missions (GOCE, SMOS and CryoSat satellites presently in operation).

Earth’s magnetosphere is an invisible shield, protecting our planet from harmful solar radiation. Many living organisms – from bacteria to insects or birds – seem to rely on Earth’s magnetic field to navigate. Yet fundamentally we still know remarkably little about the processes which contribute to the observed field and its variability in time and space.

Humans have been navigating for a thousand years since the invention of the compass. But current research shows the magnetic field is weakening and scientists are trying to understand why. Some believe it signals a pole reversal in progress, not an uncommon phenomenon in the history of our planet.

As ground observatories fail to grasp the whole picture, we are sending magnetometers into orbit to try to measure the magnitude and the direction of the magnetic field.

Find out more about Swarm here

and about the Plesetsk launch preparations at the day-to-day weblog here

ESA Euronews: Measuring Earth’s vital magnetic field#!

post by Mark Drinkwater, Head, Mission Science Division at European Space Agency at LinkedIn

By Peter B. de Selding | Oct. 4, 2013. BEIJING — The Kazakh government is on track to leverage its contract with Astrium of Europe into an ability to build and operate optical Earth observation satellites, according to the company managing the work.

Vladimir V. Ten, deputy director for Earth observation systems of Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary, said the two satellites the company ordered from Astrium of France and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Britain are both scheduled for launch, on different rockets, in the first half of 2014.

The satellites and a major technology-transfer program under which around 40 Kazakh engineers are trained by Astrium in building and operating Earth observation spacecraft were part of an October 2009 contract valued at around $336 million that was endorsed by the Kazakh and French governments.

In a Sept. 24 presentation to the 64th International Astronautical Congress here, Ten said the two satellites — Astrium’s with a 1-meter imager, SSTL’s with a 6.5-meter resolution, a wider swath and several multispectral bands — are mainly to be used to survey Kazakh territory. A secondary function is to jump-start Kazakhstan’s domestic space-engineering industrial base.

Kazakhstan’s space presence up to now has been mainly limited to its ownership of the Russian-run Baikonur Cosmodrome.

But Ten said the two Earth observation satellites also could be used to enter the commercial market for satellite data as a partner to Astrium Geo-Information Services, which in addition to its own Spot 6 and future Spot 7 satellites has commercial partnerships with national satellite systems in several nations.

The SSTL satellite is being built to permit its entry into the image distribution chain of the German-Canadian RapidEye constellation of commercial imaging spacecraft, which were also built by SSTL.

Ten said the Astrium-built high-resolution satellite — a 1-meter ground sampling distance was a contract requirement — uses the same basic satellite skeletal structure as Astrium satellites built for Algeria, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan in addition to Astrium’s Spot spacecraft.

Source

On 1 October 2013, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) signed a memorandum of agreement to develop an instrument for the Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES), which will be mounted on the International Space Station (ISS).


“Aerospace has no greater task than to observe Earth and its ecosystems from space. It is effective to use existing platforms, such as the ISS, as carriers of Earth observation instruments,” explained Professor Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the DLR Executive Board. “We are delighted at the formation of this partnership between science and industry, which through its very existence will be a catalyst in the ongoing development of new Earth observation systems.”

A flexible view of Earth

MUSES, the first commercial Earth-sensing platform on the ISS, will further increase the Space Station’s research capabilities. The instruments installed on the platform – including high-resolution digital cameras – are oriented towards Earth. The platform can host up to four Earth observation instruments and offers the ability to change, upgrade, and robotically service those instruments.

DLR will develop and deliver a Visual/Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer to be integrated with Teledyne’s MUSES platform, currently being developed under a cooperative agreement with NASA. In future and among many other tasks, the spectrometer will provide valuable information on the atmospheres over oceans and their bio-geophysical composition. The instrument will occupy one of the four Earth-looking instrument sites on MUSES.

Using the collected data

The data collected from space can be used in scientific, commercial, educational and humanitarian fields. Its high spectral quality allows for the detection of changes in land surfaces, oceans and the atmosphere, and hence the development of measures to protect the environment and climate.

Operating in the wavelength range from visible through the near infrared, the instrument will enable precise data acquisition from Earth’s surface for applications including fire-detection, change detection, maritime domain awareness, and atmospheric research. Teledyne will be responsible for integrating and operating the instrument, and will collaborate with DLR in several areas, including basic and applied research for use of data. Teledyne Brown will finalise the design and construct, integrate and test the platform before delivering it to NASA by the end of 2014. The Earth observation instrument is expected to be operational on MUSES by late 2015.

Background

Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defence electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne Technologies’ operations are primarily located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico. In 2012, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., in Huntsville, Alabama was awarded a Cooperative Agreement by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to foster the commercial use of the ISS.

Source