DubaiSat-2,STSat-3,SkySat-1,БПА-3,BRITE-PL,14ИСЗ – Днепр - 21.11.2013 - Домбаровский

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[quote    2a244d4e1="anik"]октябрь/ноябрь – DubaiSat-2, STSat-3, WNISat-1, SkySat-1, UniSat-5, AprizeSat-7, AprizeSat-8, GOMX-1, BRITE-PL (Lem), БПА-3, контейнеры с кубсатами (UWE-3, Ukube-1, NEE-01 Pegaso, Delfi-n3Xt, Triton 1/2, Cinema 2/3, FUNcube-1) – Днепр – Домбаровский 13[/quote    2a244d4e1]

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DubaiSat-2 is the second earth observation satellite of United Arab Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST).

The DubaiSat-2 project is a joint development programme between EIAST and SatrecI of South Korea, in which 16 UAE engineers have been working on the design, development, testing and manufacturing of the satellite. A Hall Effect Propulsion System (HEPS) is installed for orbit control and maintenance. Accurate and agile three-axis attitude control supports precise imaging operations. Dual redundancies are adapted where necessary in the system architecture design to increase reliability of the satellite system.

As the predecessor DubaiSat 1, it is built by Satrec Initiative to be launched in 2012. DubaiSat-2 is based pon the SpaceEye-1 configuration, which uses a SI-300 bus and the EOS-D camera.

EOS-D optical payload is a push-broom type camera with 1 m Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) for a panchromatic band and 4 m GSD for four multi-spectral bands. Swath width of the generated image is wider than 12 km. A high performance solid-state recorder is installed to receive, process, store and transmit image data in high speed. During transmission of the stored image data using X-band transmitter, the solid-state recorder compresses, encrypts and encodes the data in real time.

The satellite will be launched in 2012 together with other small satellites by a Dnepr-1 from Dombarovsky (Yasny).

Nation:    United Arab Emirates
Type / Application:    Earth Observation, Technology
Operator:    EIAST
Contractors:    Satrec Initiative
Equipment:    EOS-D camera
Configuration:    SI-300 bus
Propulsion:    Hall Effect Propulsion System (HEPS)
Power:    4 deployable fixed solar arrays, batteries
Lifetime:    
Mass:    ~300 kg
Orbit:    600 km SSO

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/dubaisat-2.htm

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STSAT-3 (Science and Technology Satellite-3) is a multi-pupose microsatellite designed and developed at SaTReC (Satellite Technology Research Center) of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).

The purpose of the STSAT-3 mission are:

    * A science mission to provide astronomical infrared imagery of the galaxy and of the cosmic background
    * An Earth observation mission to provide infrared and hyperspectral imagery for Earth environmental monitoring, land classification research, and monitoring of water quality.
    * a technology demonstration (engineering objective) mission with the introduction of a composite bus structure, Li-ion battery, LEON-3 on-board computer, and a HPS (Hall-thrust Propulsion Subsystem) with a thrust of about 10 mN

The STSAT-3 payloads are:

    * MIRIS (Multi-purpose Infrared Imaging System)
    * COMIS (Compact Imaging Spectrometer)

Nation:    South Korea
Type / Application:    Technology, astronomy, earth observation
Operator:    KAIST
Contractors:    SATREC, KAIST
Equipment:    MIRIS, COMIS
Configuration:    
Propulsion:    
Power:    
Lifetime:    2 years
Mass:    150 kg
Orbit:    

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/stsat-3.htm





http://www.hellodd.com/Kr/DD_News/Article_View.asp?Mark=36593

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BRITE-PL (BRIght-star Target Explorer - Poland), is a mission planned to make photometric observations of some of the brightest stars in the sky in order to examine these stars for variability. The observations will have a precision at least 10 times better than achievable using ground-based observations, and it will be packaged inside a CanX-class nanosatellite.

Nation:    Poland, Canada
Type / Application:    Astronomy / Technology
Operator:    
Contractors:    UTIAS (bus)
Equipment:    
Configuration:    Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB)
Propulsion:    
Power:    Solar cells, batteries
Lifetime:    
Mass:    10 kg
Orbit:    

http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/brite-pl.htm

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Cinema-2, Cinema-3

CINEMA (Cubesat for Ion, Neutral, Electron, Magnetic fields) is an international nanosatellite science mission of cooperative university institutions with the objective to provide critical space weather measurements, including unique high sensitivity mapping of ENAs (Energetic Neutral Atoms), and high cadence movies of ring current ENAs in stereo from low Earth orbit.

By the selection of its sensor complement, the mission will pave the way for "magnetospheric constellations" with many satellites making multipoint observations. The project emphasizes student involvement with guidance by experienced engineers and scientists. The implementation of the project is realized using a combination of flight heritage and innovation that balances risk and safety.

CINEMA is a CubeSat (3U) science mission of the following collaborating institutions (CINEMA consortium):

    * UCB/SSL (University of California, Berkeley/Space Sciences Laboratory), Berkeley, CA, USA lead institution
    * ICL (Imperial College London), London, UK
    * KHU (Kyung Hee University), Seoul, Korea.
    * NASA/ARC (Ames Research Center), Mountain View, CA.

Within the CINEMA program, KHU and UCB will develop and fly three identical CINEMA nanosatellites (hence, the name Trio CINEMA) to provide stereo ENA imaging of the ring current.

    * The first nanosatellite is provided by UCB/SSL
    * Two nanosatellites will be provided by KHU (KyungHeeUniversity) to be launched at a later date
    * Three magnetometers are provided by ICL (Imperial College London).

The CINEMA nanosatellite consists of bus avionics providing power, communications, and C&DHS (Command and Data Handling System), plus two instruments: the MAGIC (MAGnetometer from Imperial College), and the STEIN (SupraThermal Electrons Ions & Neutrals) particle detector. The system is based on existing bus and instrument designs

Nation:    USA, South Korea, UK
Type / Application:    Research, magnetosphere
Operator:    CINEMA consortium
Contractors:    CINEMA consortium
Equipment:    MAGIC, STEIN
Configuration:    CubeSat (3U)
Propulsion:    none
Power:    Solar cells, batteries
Lifetime:    
Mass:    4 kg
Orbit:    770 km

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SkySat-1

Малые спутники — провокация или перспективное направление?

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Малые аппараты имеют значительные перспективы, ведь технологии продолжают совершенствоваться. Практически у всех технологически развитых стран есть некая систематическая программа по реализации своих космических проектов на базе микроспутников. С их помощью отрабатываются отдельные системы, решаются ключевые проблемы, стоящие при создании коммерчески привлекательных и надежных летательных аппаратов. Спрос на микроспутники растет. Так, SSTL выходит на рынок со своей новой 50-килограммовой платформой стоимостью менее 3 млн долл., на которой может быть установлена любая нагрузка, в том числе камера с высоким разрешением.

Есть и более амбициозные проекты. Например, американский спутники «SkySat-1» массой 100 кг с аппаратурой разрешением в 1 м. Его запуск на ракетоносителе «Днепр» планируется в конце 2012 г. Одна из частных американских компаний объявила о планах создания спутника массой до 50 кг с аппаратурой ДЗЗ с таким же разрешением и стоимостью менее 15 млн долл. Проект выглядит немного фантастичным, тем не менее такие предложения уже есть и, главное, существуют предпосылки для их реализации.

Вопрос из зала: Скажите, пожалуйста, эти спутники микро-, мини- и т. д. мировых лидеров, как их ресурс соотносится с ресурсом больших спутников? Каков он на сегодня и как это сказывается на коммерческом использовании?

В. Гершензон: Вернусь к началу моего выступления: перспектива или провокация? Аппарат с метровым разрешением «SkySat-1», по которому сегодня уже есть реальный контракт по запуску в конце 2012 г., стоит 20 млн долл. по сравнению, скажем, с 700-миллионным запуском следующего «GeoEye» обычной массы с похожим простран ственным разрешением. Казалось бы, разница огромная. Откуда она берется? Надо учесть ресурс времени работы, надежность на орбите, а он для микро- и миниаппаратов ограничен. Потому для крупных игроков в этой сфере, более консервативных, это оказывается фактором риска, опреде ляющим выбор в пользу традиционных решений и больших спутников.

Вопрос из зала: Выскажу несколько тезисов. Провокация или реальность — это пока все же не очень корректно, потому что из 7 тыс. запущенных спутников лишь каждый седьмой — микро спутник. Те, кто занимается разработкой и производством спутников, прекрасно знают, что не вес характеризует спутник, а его энергетика. В коммерческом отношении микроспутники проигрывают обычным спутникам. Компания «Inmarsat» зарабатывает на трех спутниках 1,3 млрд долл., что превышает стоимость 200 малых спутников различных зарубежных компаний. Поэтому если вы возьмете большой спутник — двухтонный, четырехтонный, который стоит 70 или 100 млн долл., цена за килограмм будет выше примерно в 2 раза, но они и летают в 3–4 раза дольше.

Дистанционное зондирование Земли пока, к сожалению, себя не окупает — ни у нас, ни в одной стране мира, но государству нельзя не за ниматься ДЗЗ. Микроспутники нужны, с этим никто не спорит, но коммерческого эффекта дать они не могут...

В. Гершензон: Мы давно работаем со спутниками «EROS-A» и «EROS-В», запущенными российскими «Тополями», и по своим критериям они как раз близки к миниспутникам: масса аппаратов 200–250 кг. И это вполне состоявшаяся программа — прежде всего в коммерческом отношении. Успешность коммерциализации зависит от подходов, от эффективности диалога частного и государственного секторов. На мой взгляд, мы готовы к некоему технологическому прорыву, прежде всего направленному на научно образовательные инициативы. Никто не говорит о том, что здесь можно крупно заработать. Вопрос в том, чтобы был опыт, чтобы была практика, чтобы был интерфейс взаимодействия с внешним миром и внешнего мира — с российскими университетами.

http://community.sk.ru/press/b/pressabout/archive/2012/01/12/malye-sputniki-_1420_-provokaciya-ili-perspektivnoe-napravlenie.aspx

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SKYSAT-1 APPROVED FOR TAKEOFF

Palo Alto, California – April 20, 2010:  Skybox Imaging announced today that the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has granted Skybox a license to operate a private, commercial, remote sensing satellite named "SkySat-1."

SkySat-1 is a commercial Earth observation satellite, licensed to collect high resolution panchromatic and multispectral images of the earth. The satellite will operate in a polar inclined, circular orbit at approximately 450 km above the earth. Skybox becomes only the fifth organization licensed to provide high resolution space-based imagery of Earth.

Dan Berkenstock, Skybox Chief Executive Officer, said "Receipt of our NOAA license is a key milestone along to road towards democratizing access to satellite imagery. Skybox will provide imagery to commercial users at a level of quality and timeliness that was previously only available to large government users. NOAA licensing is a concrete example of the US government's move to commercialize the space industry and Skybox is pleased to be on the forefront of this new frontier "

About the regulator

The Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce.

About Skybox Imaging

Skybox Imaging, Inc is a privately held, venture backed company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. In today's interconnected world, leaders in diverse sectors such as finance, environmental monitoring, and infrastructure management need increasingly complex information to support decision making. Skybox has a unique focus on commercial consumers of satellite imagery and the data derived from these images.

http://www.skyboximaging.com/news/blog/skysat-1-approved-takeoff

SKYBOX MAKES SATELLITES BUT DON'T CALL THEMSELVES AEROSPACE

By Jon Xavier, Researcher/Reporter, Silicon Valley Business Journal - September 30, 2011 - Traditional satellites are big, expensive, and engineered to last for decades. Skybox Imaging Inc.  wants to make satellites that are small, cheap, and shorter-lived. In doing so it wants to launch more satellites than has been possible previously, and offer a service that's never been possible before: a near real-time look at locations anywhere on the globe.

But what might be the biggest break from traditional aerospace companies is SkyBox's business model, which looks more like Twitter than Space Systems Loral. The company wants to provide its satellite imaging as a platform, allowing others to build applications on top of it. Like Twitter's "firehose" of social data it provides to others, the goal is to create a lot of value for a lot of different companies, and then profit by capturing some of that value for itself. The company is venture backed, with $21 million in two rounds from Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Leader Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Youniversity Ventures and Draper Associates LP.

In fact, Skybox doesn't really think of itself as a satellite company at all, said founder and Chief Product Officer Dan Berkenstock.

"People typecast us as an aerospace company, but we think of ourselves as a big data company," he said. "Nobody says Google is a data center company. It's a search company, but the servers are there, they're in the background, and part of Google's competitive advantage is they've figured out how to make very good, very low cost, very scaleable data centers. That's kind of the same thing here with Skybox. We're a big data company that just happens to use satellites to get that data."

Compared with traditional satellites, which cost many millions of dollars and can be the size of a van, Skybox's satellite is significantly cheaper to launch and only about the size of a minifridge. Consequently the company can launch a lot more of them, allowing it to have a larger network of satellites orbiting that can provide more up-to-date imagery than ever before. The first is scheduled to be in space in the fourth quarter of 2012. Skybox is only the fifth organization to be licensed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  to operate a high-resolution imaging satellite.

Skybox is hiring aggressively, expecting to double its work force of 50 in the next year. It's not hiring just the traditional aerospace engineers that a satellite agency would be expected to employ, either. Skybox expects to have a fairly sizable software layer, so at the top of its talent wishlist are the sort of engineers you might see at a more traditional Silicon Valley startup — experienced application developers and people who can work with large amounts of data.

Amaresh Kollipara, CEO of Earth2Orbit Inc., a San Francisco-based space consultancy, said Skybox has been able to raise more venture money than any satellite startup he's ever heard of. That speaks to the strength of the company, because this is still a difficult industry for startups to gain funding in, said Kollipara, who also runs a small network of angel investors focused on space exploration.

But it also speaks to a wider trend happening in space. With NASA  looking to spin out many of its functions to private industries, once traditionally performed by administration, an opportunity is being created for startups to fill the void. One example is Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has already been contracted by NASA to make deliveries to the International Space Station. And since these startups won't necessarily be providing these services to the government alone, that creates an opportunity for new applications like those provided by Skybox that wouldn't be possible before, Kollipara said.

"That's a good thing. Having private industry be the developer of the technology, the consumer of the technology, leaves arcane government requirements out of the mix," Kollipara said. "A lot of companies in the past, if they were coming out of government contracts, they didn't necessarily build toward effective technology development, because the government gave them a blueprint of what they wanted, and then gave them whatever their costs were plus 6 to 8 percent margins. Companies weren't incentivized to think new age, think commercially, think how best to address the customer problem."

The fact that the satellite imaging industry has been geared toward addressing the needs of a handful of large government organizations has also created a significant mismatch between supply and demand, said David Cowan, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, who invested in the company and now serves on its board. The government had the right to supersede the requests of private companies for a finite supply of satellite time, and it often did, leaving the private sector with limited access to satellites. The opportunity for Skybox to serve that pent up demand is part of what attracted the VCs, Cowan said.

"Basically you have a market where you don't have a traditional balance of supply and demand. The market is very supply constrained," he said. "What's interesting is that, when you go about commercializing space using venture capital, you think about the mission in a much more scrappy, capital-intensive way than you would when it's funded by the U.S. government. You think, how can we do this smaller, faster, cheaper, better?"

http://skyboximaging.com/news/blog/skybox-makes-satellites-dont-call-themselves-aerospace

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WNISAT 1 (Weather News Inc. Satellite 1) is a nanosatellite for north arctic routes and atmosphere monitoring. The project is started from the commercial objects between Weathernews and Axelspace. The object of the WNISAT-1 mission is monitoring of the Northern sea routes and of the CO2 content of the atmosphere.

The 10 kg satellites is built on a 27 cm cube structure and is three-axis-stabilized.

Two cameras cover a 500 km

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UniSat-5

UniSat (University Satellite) are a series of small (~12 kg) satellites developed at the Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale by the Gruppo di Astrodinamica dell'Universit

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DubaiSat-2 Launch

DubaiSat-2 will be launched with Dnepr LV, which is provided by KOSMOTRAS Company of the Russian Federation. It will be launched into a circular Sun Synchronous Orbit of 600 Km altitude and local time of descending node of 10:30 am. The launch is scheduled for the last quarter of 2012, along with other satellites in the same launch. The revisit time for a ground location will maximum after 8 days. The tilting capability of DubaiSat-2 can go up to ±45° roll tilt, ±30° pitch tilt.

http://www.eiast.ae/

DubaiSat-2 Ground Segment
http://www.eiast.ae/

DubaiSat-2 Space Segment

1. System Overview

The space segment consists of a spacecraft bus and an electro-optical payload. The electro-optical payload is a push-broom camera with TDI sensors (1 panchromatic and 4 multi-spectral bands). The spacecraft has a Ground Sampling Distance of 1m for Panchromatic and 4m for Multi-spectral, with a 12.2 km Swath Width. DubaiSat-2 has the capacity to store approximately 17,000 km2 of image data. The modules in the satellite use two CAN Bus networks to communicate with each other. DubaiSat-2 also includes an experimental propulsion system for orbit correction and maintenance. The satellite's expected lifetime is at least five years. Figure 1 shows DubaiSat-2 system architecture.

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4. Command and Data Handling Subsystem (C&DH)

The Command and Data Handling Subsystem (C&DH) handles all telecommands received by the spacecraft and collects telemetries from all subsystems. It also provides the required environment for the satellite's onboard software. Two separate CAN networks, CDH and ACS CAN, are used to exchange data between C&DH and other subsystems. Each CAN network has a 500 Kbps data rate. ACS CAN is dedicated to ACS modules and CDH CAN to all other modules. The C&DH is shown in Figure 3 and consists of the following modules:

    * Telemetry and Telecommand Module (TMTC)
    * On-Board Computer (OBC)
    * Interface Boards (IBs)



4.1. Telemetry and Telecommand Module (TMTC)

DubaiSat-2 has two TMTCs with hot redundancy configuration. Both TMTCs share the same board. The TMTC performs all CCSDS telecommands decoding and CCSDS telemetries encoding, reducing the load on the on-board computer. It receives telecommands sent by the ground station through the S-band demodulator, and sends telemetries to the ground station through S-band modulator. The TMTC also acts as a watchdog to the DubaiSat-2 OBC. It has an autonomous reconfiguration capability, which insures normal spacecraft operation in the event that the primary OBC fails.

4.2. On-Board Computer (OBC)

The On-Board Computer (OBC) module is the main central processing unit in the satellite. It communicates with all modules through CAN bus network. All the telemetries generated by the different subsystems go to OBC were they are recorded and processed. OBC also handles all decoded telecommands received from the TMTC. Based on the received telecommands or the collected telemetries, the OBC decides and commands different DS-2 modules. OBC is directly connected to both CDH and the ACS CAN network buses. DubaiSat-2 has two On-Board Computers with cold redundancy configuration. The primary and redundant OBCs could be reconfigured either through a ground station command or autonomously by TMTC.

6. Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS)

The Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS) is designed to advance agility and stability performance of the satellite during mission operations. With a relatively high Moment of Inertia (MoI) values, the satellite is designed to perform Single Strip Imaging, Multi-Strip Imaging, and Single-Pass Stereo Imaging. The agility of the satellite can reach up to 60° maneuver within 90 sec. The pointing accuracy is <0.12° (3

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DubaiSat-2 project passes key tests to ensure it withstands rigours of space
01-02-2012

* Final development model is put through its paces with heat, shock and vibration tests
    * Project demonstrates His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid's commitment to developing a knowledge base among UAE youth, says Al Mansoori

Dubai, 1 February 2012: Engineers from the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science & Technology (EIAST) announced that the DubaiSat-2 project has completed a crucial stage in the design phase, with the qualification model (QM) passing a series of rigorous tests.

The Qualification Model is the third and final design model, and represents the last test of all components on DubaiSat-2, the UAE's second remote sensing satellite which is due to be launched into orbit by the end of 2012. The model is very close to the final satellite, but has been made with less space worthy components.

Ahmed Al Mansoori, Director General of EIAST, said: "I am delighted that the EIAST engineers have passed this significant milestone, which reflects the dedication, expertise and commitment of our team of highly skilled UAE engineers. The strive to bring to reality the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, is to propel our youth towards the cutting edge of advanced scientific research and development".

The DubaiSat-2 Qualification Model has been put through a series of tests to ensure the final satellite can withstand the harsh environment of the launch and its long mission in space. Tests included vibration testing, acoustic testing, thermal testing, thermal vacuum testing, a shock test and mass measurement.
                                       
"These tests are designed to put the satellite through the same or similar conditions that it will face on its journey to space. From lift off to separation of the satellite from the launcher, it takes 15 minutes, but the amount of pressure, shock and vibration is very high and we need to put the model through those same conditions to make sure our satellite will eventually survive this event" said Salem Al Marri, Head of projects and space missions at EIAST.

Al Marri added: "We also need to make sure our satellite will survive in space. Because it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, it will be in front of the sun for about 60 minutes and behind the Earth for the rest of the time, and will therefore be subjected to huge changes in temperature. This testing phase ensures that the final satellite will cope with this."

All of these tests were completed in early October. The next step for the engineers behind the project is one last verification of the data from the electronic components before a meeting is held at the end of February to review the data and confirm that the project is ready to enter the manufacturing stage.



The satellite will orbit 600 km above the earth's surface compared to the 690 km orbit of DubaiSat-1. The orbit has also been changed from an ascending obit (South to North) to a descending orbit (North to South), which will allow both satellites to work well in constellation as well as give better coverage of the UAE area.

Among other significant improvements, the UAE team along with their South Korean Partners (Satrec Initiative) have designed the satellite to produce higher quality images at 1 meter resolution which can serve various applications including environmental projects, urban planning, infrastructure, telecommunications and electricity projects.

The DubaiSat-2 project is a joint development programme between EIAST and Satrec Initiative of South Korea, in which 16 UAE engineers have been working on the design, development, testing and manufacturing of the satellite. The participation of the UAE engineers, who are currently working in South Korea, has increased by 100 per cent from the DubaiSat-1 project and it is hoped that this will take EIAST to the next level in satellite development.

http://www.eiast.ae/

DubaiSat-1 captures image of Bahrain International Circuit
23-02-2012

DubaiSat-1, the UAE-owned and operated earth observation satellite, has relayed pan-shaped, high quality, multi-spectral image of the Bahrain International Circuit from the outer space.

The high resolution images relayed by DubaiSat-1 are a valuable resource in infrastructure planning and development. The satellite images complement existing Geographic Information System (GIS) databases and enable more efficient monitoring of environmental changes and natural hazards in addition to identifying water quality in the Gulf.



DubaiSat-1 was a joint project between the UAE and South Korea, developed with a focus on knowledge transfer to the UAE team that participated in building the satellite. EIAST had launched DubaiSat-1 in July 2009, and since then the satellite has been transmitting images that are of great value in several areas.

EIAST is currently working on the final stages of DubaiSat-2, a joint development programme with the Satrec Initiative of South Korea. Sixteen UAE engineers, currently stationed in South Korea, have been working on the design, development, testing and manufacturing of the satellite. The participation of UAE engineers in the project has increased by 100 per cent compared to DubaiSat-1 and it is hoped DubaiSat-2 will take EIAST to the next level in satellite development.

DubaiSat-2 will be launched on board a Dnepr Rocket through the Moscow-based International Space Company Kosmotras (ISCK) from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia by the fourth quarter of 2012, as part of a clustered launch, in which DubaiSat-2 will be the primary satellite on board.

http://www.eiast.ae/

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SATNEWS EXECUTIVE SPOTLIGHT: DAN BERKENSTOCK

By SatMagazine - January 9, 2012

Dan Berkenstock is an entrepreneur and engineer from Chicago, Illinois, with a healthy respect for the risks and rewards of doing business in space. He is also fascinated by scalable and novel data streams that revolutionize the ways that consumers, businesses, and governments make decisions in their day-to-day lives.

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SM
Give us an update on the production of Skybox Imaging's first satellite, SkySat-1, and the ground systems development. What does the schedule now look like for this important mission?

Dan Berkenstock
We completed SkySat-1's critical design review in February. It was a big milestone. At this point, the major flight systems have been fabricated and are undergoing environmental testing. We will begin a full integration and test of the complete spacecraft early next year. Meanwhile, we deployed our first ground station and are doing testing over the next six months. We've also deployed infrastructure and software to demonstrate how we will operate these satellites from the ground. SkySat-1 is projected to launch during fourth quarter of next year. Commercial services will start approximately three months later in early 2013.

SM
When looking at the extensive portfolio of applications your technology offers, from competitive intelligence to emergency response, which application excites you most and why?

Dan Berkenstock
The application that excites me most is the one we don't know about yet. Coming from Silicon Valley, I'm a big believer in big data and making that data as accessible as possible to people around the world to help develop valuable applications. I'm most excited to find the application that we would have never thought of, sitting here in Silicon Valley, California; that a developer somewhere else in the world will find our data and revolutionize the lives of millions of people.

SM
How was the NOAA operating license obtained, and what does that signify for the Company?

Dan Berkenstock
Imaging satellites are very important and sensitive technologies. The U.S. government carefully regulates which American companies get to launch imaging satellites and how they operate them. So, for us, obtaining the NOAA license was an important milestone because that means we've gone through the process with the U.S. government to ensure we meet their criteria to bring a sophisticated approach for how we build and operate satellites. This enables us to deliver greater transparency to the world at large and in a manner that is consistent with U.S. national security objectives.

SM
What has been Skybox's most significant achievement during your tenure?

Dan Berkenstock
There are two things. The biggest one was being able to bring extremely high-quality, very well-known investors from Silicon Valley into a business that involves satellites. That was a huge challenge. I think it takes a lot of vision and courage to invest in a project that, from a technology point of view, is outside of their traditional investment stream, but from a pattern-matching point of view, has many similarities.

The other biggest accomplishment is developing our technology to the point where we've been able to build a complete, flat system of the satellite and demonstrate the entire technology chain required to achieve SkySat-1's mission.

SM
What is Skybox focusing on in 2012?

Dan Berkenstock
The main thing is getting through the launch of SkySat-1 — completing integration and testing of the spacecraft and delivering it to the launch site. Then, we need to continue building out our ground infrastructure for software and hardware. That will be followed by full system-integrated testing between the satellite and the ground infrastructure to prove that when the satellite gets up into space we will be able to download images as soon as possible, and ultimately deliver them to the world.

SM
Who has mentored and inspired you? And, how do you inspire the technological and entrepreneurial geniuses of tomorrow?

Dan Berkenstock
When I was working at NASA, Apollo 13 Flight Director Gene Kranz was still an active speaker. He taught us all that it's possible to innovate and to go after big objectives in space. Mr. Kranz and other Apollo-era innovators have always been a tremendous inspiration in my life — to dream big things and accomplish them. In addition, I was very fortunate to have strong advisors and mentors at Stanford University when we were trying to start this company.

I try to do as much as I can to advise the innovators of tomorrow that I see coming out of Stanford by helping them get initial funding to turn those ideas into the latest and greatest companies.

SM
Which brings us to another important topic — the need to train young students today in the disciplines of STEM. SATCOM companies are finding the talent pools from which they must hire are shrinking, rather than growing. How do we inspire students, from middle school through college, to look at our industry as one replete with excitement and a challenging career? What can companies, such as Skybox Imaging, do to support such programs locally and nationally?

Dan Berkenstock
As an industry, we have a responsibility to prove to the potential aerospace engineers of tomorrow that this is an industry that can be rewarding and challenging. I think that in the last 30 years, the aerospace industry has lost some of the things that made it great back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s — kind of in the golden era, when a young person going into the industry knew they would build airplanes or spacecraft that would fly. They knew that their work would be seen and felt that they were working in an environment where they could be challenged and creatively innovative toward the larger mission.

Too often today, projects have gotten so expensive, have involved so many people and taken so long that it's difficult for young people to convince themselves that it's the most challenging and rewarding way for them to spend the next 30 years of their life.

A concrete step that the industry can do now is to encourage and fund more projects involving small satellites and microsatellites. The more people who are able to be challenged, allowed to be innovative, and are able to see their work fly, then the more people will want to get into this industry.

The aerospace industry tends to be so immersed in process and rigid schedules that there are often too little opportunities for creativity to flourish. As an industry, we need to create an environment where young people want to work for us. In addition, we need more robust intern programs that give students real work to do. Last summer, Skybox had 10 interns who all did critical things in the design and development of our spacecraft and ground system.

http://www.skyboximaging.com/news/blog/satnews-executive-spotlight-dan-berkenstock

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SATELLITE PHOTOS GO COMMERCIAL: SKYBOX DELIVERS IMAGERY AS A SERVICE

By Ted Greenwald, Contributor, Forbes - February 29, 2012

Remember what GPS looked like in the late '90s? The Global Positioning System was a strategic asset controlled by the US government, which limited spatial resolution available to civilians. Well-heeled consumers could choose among a handful of expensive, under-designed receivers, but for most people, the benefit wasn't worth the expense. Today, of course, GPS is ubiquitous. Every car, cellphone, or computer can track its location, fostering an ecosystem of goods and services that help people locate what they need, when they need it, anywhere on Earth.

Skybox Imaging is betting that satellite imagery circa 2012 is like GPS location circa 1998. The market for detailed pictures of the earth's surface is growing, but satellite imagery's public-sector legacy makes it impractical many potential uses. For some purposes, it's not timely enough: GoogleEarth's display can be several years out of date. For others, it's too costly: Commercial users can pay exorbitant sums for crucial intelligence — $2000-$3000 per task plus $5-$30 per square kilometer of coverage — only to be preempted by government priorities. Upshot: Satellite photo applications that could revolutionize existing industries and create new ones never even reach the paper napkin stage.

Skybox aims to crack open this latent market. "Our secret sauce is the ability to integrate what's in the sky and on the ground, and solve the last-mile problem of distribution," says Adam Wegel, VP of marketing.

Starting in late 2012, the 55-person company based in Mountain View, California, will launch a private constellation designed to deliver orbital photos as a service: Just log in, enter a credit card number, and grab a timely shot of any spot on Earth. Unlike Google, Bing, or MapQuest, Skybox images will be updated every eight hours. (There are indications that the company's plans are more ambitious: one-hour temporal resolution, video, and the ability to specify a path, although Wegel didn't mention these capabilities when we spoke.) The company views its system as a platform, like an iPhone, on which developers can build next-gen commercial and consumer applications. "You'll be able to build apps for monitoring oil and gas pipelines," Wegel says, "or for financial trading, where they're starting use imagery to predict stock prices."

The key to Skybox's strategy is a different approach to building satellites. Conventional imaging sats are designed for government work. They cost $800 million each. They occupy the volume of an SUV and weigh two tons, take five years to build and stay in orbit for a decade. Skybox believes that's overkill for commercial applications. It's using off-the-shelf parts and open-source software to build birds the size of a mini-fridge that weigh 200 pounds, so they can be lofted cheaply and upgraded every few years.

"We want to bring Moore's Law into space," Wegel says, "to take advantage of a shorter development cycle, higher processing power, and more affordable cost curve." Unlike government-spec imagery, which must be detailed enough to fire a missile down an elevator shaft, Skybox's spatial resolution will be a yard or less, enough to count cars in a parking lot.

This is a risky bet in a market that's still smarting from the spectacular failure of Iridium's satellite phone network early in the millennium. Iridium's costs proved too high for a market that never materialized. Likewise, Skybox faces substantial challenges. A new photo every eight hours may not be frequent enough (though that's a function of the number of sats in the sky). The company's designs may turn out to be more costly to implement and deploy than projections indicate, and the market for a satellite imaging platform will be impossible to gauge until the first 12 satellites are up. Wegel admits that Skybox's demand forecast is a "leap of faith." That may explain the lack of competitors in the market.

Still, a number of established trends are working in Skybox's favor: Private-enterprise aerospace, contract manufacturing, geolocation, mobile computing, data analytics, platform business dynamics, and of course Moore's Law itself. The company has built a strong team made up of seasoned aerospace and Silicon Valley vets. Its first birds will take flight in late 2012. Then we'll see what's really happening on the ground in Mountain View.

http://skyboximaging.com/news/blog/satellite-photos-go-commercial-skybox-delivers-imagery-service
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tedgreenwald/2012/02/29/satellite-photos-go-commercial-skybox-imaging-launches-a-unique-platform/

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SKYBOX IMAGING RAISES $70M IN NEW FINANCING

Skybox Imaging Raises $70 Million in New Financing

Start-up readies SkySat-1 for launch; plans to deliver big data powered by small satellites

April 17, 2012, Mountain View, Calif. – Skybox Imaging, an early-stage provider of satellite imagery, video, and big data analytics, today announced that it has raised $70 million in Series C financing led by Canaan Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. They join existing investors Khosla Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing the total amount raised to date to $91 million.

Skybox plans to use the capital to complete development and launch of its first two high-resolution imaging microsatellites, SkySat-1 and SkySat-2. It will also use the funds to grow its team of software engineers and data scientists. SkySat-1 is slated to launch in fourth quarter of 2012 aboard an International Space Company (ISC) Kosmotras Dnepr rocket.

"We will also use this capital to expand strategic alliances, position Skybox for initial commercial operations, and to accelerate the development path towards the full constellation of microsatellites," said Skybox CEO Tom Ingersoll. "Canaan Partners' and Norwest Venture Partners' commitment to the Skybox vision gets us one step closer to reaching all of these milestones."

Current satellite systems sporadically capture still images of various regions of the earth. The Skybox constellation will enable much more frequent monitoring of an increased portion of the planet's surface. Skybox is the first to offer high-definition video, as well as still imagery, and will utilize Hadoop to build a combined hardware and software chain capable of processing, extracting, and interpreting large amounts of pixel and derived data. The value of capturing repeat images and video, coupled with the power to mine that data for trends, gives industries unprecedented information to support decision-making. There are numerous practical applications, spanning sectors from business intelligence and financial trading to disaster response and humanitarian relief.

"Imaging satellites have the potential to deeply impact the day-to-day experiences of both businesses and consumers," said Deepak Kamra, general partner, Canaan Partners, who will be joining the Skybox board. "Until now, only governments and militaries have been able to use the valuable data gained from analyzing these images. With this analytic capability now becoming available and affordable to mainstream users, we can expect to see a dramatic and permanent shift in how business and consumers operate," he added.

About Skybox Imaging

Skybox Imaging (Skybox) is a commercial, remote sensing start-up revolutionizing access to information that describes daily activity on our planet. Founded in 2009 and backed by leading venture firms, the company is designing, manufacturing, and operating the world's first coordinated constellation of high-resolution microsatellites. With its constellation, Skybox will deliver timely, global imagery and video as well as an analytics platform capable of creating new sources of value from such data. Skybox is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and was named to MIT Technology Review's "Top 50 Most Innovative Companies" for 2012. For more information, visit www.skyboximaging.com and follow Skybox Imaging on Twitter.

About Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners invests in entrepreneurs and works alongside them to turn visionary ideas into valuable companies. Since 1987, the firm has catalyzed the growth of disruptive technology startups and healthcare companies revolutionizing the practice of medicine. With $3.5 billion under management and more than 85 acquisitions and 53 IPOs to date, Canaan has funded technology companies such as SuccessFactors (NASDAQ: SFSF), DoubleClick (acquired by Google), Match.com (acquired by IAC), Acme Packet (NASDAQ: APKT), Active Network (NYSE: ACTV) and SandForce (acquired by LSI), as well as notable healthcare companies such as Advanced BioHealing (acquired by Shire); Advance PCS (acquired by Caremark), BiPar Sciences (acquired by Sanofi); Calixa Therapeutics (acquired by Cubist); Cerexa Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Forest Labs) and Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson). Current technology investments include Tremor Video, KABAM, Lending Club, blip.tv, Zoosk and Blurb in the US; BharatMatrimony, LoyaltyRewardz, Naaptol and UnitedLex in India; and PrimeSense, LiveU and N-trig in Israel. The Canaan healthcare portfolio includes emerging leaders such as Liquidia Technologies, Theraclone Sciences, Durata, Civitas Therapeutics, Elevation Pharmaceuticals and DICOM Grid. Canaan maintains a presence in the global innovation hubs of New York, SiliconValley, India and Israel . For more information visit www.canaan.com or www.facebook.com/canaanpartners .

About Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture and growth equity investment firm that manages more than $3.7 billion in capital.  Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, NVP has subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel and Hong Kong. NVP makes early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: information technology, business services, financial services, infrastructure, technology enabled services and consumer. NVP has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 50 years and has funded over 500 companies since inception. For more information visit: www.nvp.com .

http://skyboximaging.com/news/blog/skybox-imaging-raises-70m-new-financing

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2012
ПО – DubaiSat-2, STSat-3, WNISat-1, SkySat-1, UniSat-5, AprizeSat-7, AprizeSat-8, GOMX-1, BRITE-PL (Lem), БПА-3, контейнеры с кубсатами (UWE-3, Ukube-1, NEE-01 Pegaso, Delfi-n3Xt, Triton 1/2, Cinema 2/3, FUNcube-1) – Днепр – Домбаровский 13

[anik]

Уже минус один...

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/UKs_Cubesat_books_a_ride_on_Russian_rocket_999.html

"UKube-1 - the UK's first cubesat mission - has 'booked' its journey into space on a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrone in Kazakhstan is expected to take place in March 2013"

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В 2012 году не будет...

[ZOOR]

Ветка пакистанского форума про ДубайСаты. Много фоток и инфы
http://www.defence.pk/forums/arab-defence/229361-uae-gcc-dubai-satellite-program.html
Оказывается, уже 7 лет 22 эмиратца обучаются в Южной Корее спутникостроению.

А вот как арабы пиарят свой спутник http://www.ameinfo.com/eiast-extends-deadline-dubaisat-2-logo-competition-325334
Нашим бы поучиться

[anik]

Пуск планируется на ноябрь 2013 года.

[Salo]

anik пишет:
ноябрь – DubaiSat-2, STSat-3, WNISat-1, SkySat-1, UniSat-5, AprizeSat-7, AprizeSat-8, BRITE-PL (Lem), БПА-3, контейнеры с кубсатами (UWE-3, Delfi-n3Xt, Triton 1/2, Cinema 2/3, Dove 4, FUNcube-1, I-Cube, GOMX-1, eSt@r 2, PUCP-SAT 1, Humsat-D, PUCP-SAT 1, BeakerSat, Eagle 1, Wren, Pocket-PUCP, QBScout 1) – Днепр – Домбаровский 13