Activity of Ukraine in satellite development domain
Yuzhnoye State Design Office is the prime developer of the satellite systems in Ukraine; it closely cooperates with the manufacturer of the satellites – Production Association “Yuzhnyy Machine-Building Plant” and with the organization that is operating satellite systems – “National center of SC control and testing”.
The first satellite of SDO Yuzhnoye’s development was launched on March 16, 1962, and about 400 satellites were launched since then.
The most important direction of scientific and applied studies was research of the near-earth space and the Earth planet which was performed by means of spacecraft designed on the basis of the unified platforms (DС-U1, DС-U2, DС-U3 – small platforms of the first generation; АUОС-З, АUОС-SM – automated universal orbital stations).
During 1965-2001 53 scientific spacecraft were injected into the orbit. Their efficiency was a determinative factor due to which these SC were accepted as the basic SC in the “Intercosmos” Program.
In 1977 Yuzhnoye SDO started development of the “Okean”_satellite subsystem, _“Resurs” operational system. The first satellite from this series “Okean-OE” solved the tasks related to principle possibility of acquiring the required information and its transmission to a consumer; the next spacecraft “Okean-O1” and “Okean-O” provided the global optical, radar and microwave imaging that allowed to solve the range of the national economy’s problems by the Earth remote sensing.
Declaration of independence of Ukraine considerably changed the situation in the space domain. Therefore the launch of the first Earth Remote Sensing Satellite under jurisdiction of Ukraine – “Sich-1” required solving the tasks related to creation of national infrastructure of control, data acquisition and processing facilities and facilities of the acquired information distribution, as well as preparation of customer network in Ukraine. All these tasks were successfully solved within short period of time – less than two years.
“Sich-1” satellite was launched on August 31, 1995 and demonstrated its high efficiency. “Sich-1M” satellite had considerably improved specifications of the observation systems, both in optical and radio bands.
“Mikron” experimental microsatellite developed by Yuzhnoye SDO was used for testing the new technological solutions integrated into the space platform in the interest of the Earth remote sensing using microsatellites.
In 2001 Yuzhnoye SDO won the tender on development of Egyptsat-1 satellite, ground control station and data receiving technologies for the Arab Republic of Egypt. The Project also envisaged training of the Egyptian specialists and technology transfer in designing, developing and manufacturing of satellite, as well as satellite control training.
Yuzhnoye SDO in cooperation with Ukrainian enterprises developed project documentation and design documentation, conducted experimental testing of satellite’s components and satellite as a whole as well as ensured its manufacturing and pre-launch processing.
On April 17, 2007 the Egyptsat-1 satellite was injected into orbit by “Dnepr-1” LV from Baikonur launch site; the satellite successfully passed flight tests and currently it is performing imaging of the Earth surface.
Yuzhnoye SDO constantly monitors development of new technologies in Earth remote sensing, maintains close contacts with the partners, searches for new scientific and industrial contacts in order to be at the forefront of this direction of cosmonautics and meet the highest requirements of the customers.
Perspective Earth Remote Sensing Satellites made in Ukraine
Currently, Yuzhnoye SDO is finalizing creation of the Ukrainian optical-electronic observation satellite “Sich-2”:
Configuration of the satellite payload includes the following:
- The multi-zonal scanner that ensures obtaining of digital images of the Earth surface in panchromatic, green, red and near-infrared spectral bands having ground resolution of 7,8 m in swath of 46,6 km; – Scanner of medium infrared band that ensures obtaining of digital images of the Earth surface in medium infrared spectral band with the ground resolution of 39,5 m in swath of 55,5 km.
Pointing of scanners to the necessary parts of the Earth surface is performed by rotation of the whole satellite.
Launch of “Sich-2” satellite is scheduled for 2009. The satellite will be injected by “Dnepr-1” Launch-Vehicle into sun-synchronous orbit with altitude of 668 km. Active life time of the satellite on orbit should be no less than 5 years.
With the purpose of ensuring further advancement of Remote Sensing Satellite Systems the National Space Program of Ukraine envisages creation of the following satellites:
- Optical-electronic observation satellite “Sich-2M” with ground resolution higher than 2 m:
- Optical-electronic observation satellites “Sich-3” with ground resolution higher that 1 m and radar observation with ground resolution higher than 2 m.
Ukraine is open for international cooperation including developing countries, and proposes the following ways of cooperation:
1. Creation of the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites, and ground control complexes for these satellites;
2. Creation of ground complexes for acquiring and processing information from the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites at the territories of the interested countries.
3. Performing launches of the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites for the interested countries.
4. Joint operation of the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites in the interests of Ukraine and the interested countries.
5. Training specialists of the interested countries and technology transfer of designing, development, manufacturing and operation of satellites.
The Ukrainian scientific project “ІОNОSАT” – monitoring natural and man – caused catastrophes on the basis of a cluster of microsatellites for multi-positional measurements of ionosphere parameters.
The Project consolidates the existing experience of the Ukrainian space organizations and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for creation of state-of-art ionosphere satellite Project.
The purpose of the Project is to inject into orbit a series of clusters in 3 scientific satellites configuration for global monitoring of the ionosphere parameters. Satellites are created based on subsystems and engineering solutions space proven in order to reduce costs of the Project development and creation of a multi-purpose space platform for global space monitoring system.
The Project is open for international cooperation and could be developed with involvement of foreign partners.
Method of multi-positional measurements based on 3 closely located satellites (satellite cluster) in contrast to the single-point measurements by one satellite, enables to separate spatial and time changes of the measured values. Accommodation of scientific equipment on the cluster satellites will ensure a series of fundamentally new experiments important for understanding of physical processes with the maximal possible level of electromagnetic purity and higher accuracy of measurements.
Taking into consideration the worldwide trends in ionosphere studies it supposed to solve the following scientific tasks: registration of ionosphere phenomena, analysis of large-scale electric field, small variations of magnetic fields, energy-angular distributions of energetic charged particles, characteristics of heat and superheat plasma in ionosphere.
Initial phase of the space system creation will be performed based on the orbital constellation of 3 satellites (one satellite cluster) located in one plane, which will be injected into orbit by one launch-vehicle.
In future, global monitoring satellite constellation could be deployed based on 6-8 satellite clusters (18-24 satellites). The number of planes will be finally determined upon results of the experimental phase of the space system creation.
Directions of works for international cooperation are the following: investing in the project development, creation of interstate project, participation in forming scientific part of the project, results processing, project ground support, creation of space experiments devices, acquiring and using information from the onboard scientific complex, participation in deployment of the satellite constellation for global monitoring.