Session
Technical Session IV: The Year in Retrospect
Abstract
The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) currently provides a 24 hour revisit capability for any point on the globe. With a 600km swath width and 32m ground sample distance it provides a unique resource for developing and extending the capabilities in a variety of application areas. The DMC has demonstrated its ability to respond to disasters such as the Asian tsunami event and others, as well as serving other applications in precision farming, mapping, prospecting, and scientific research. The paper will focus on the wide range of applications that can be accomplished with a relatively small spacecraft constellation infrastructure. The DMC mission has also successfully demonstrated the operational use of IP protocols in space, and during 2004 successfully used the ground web-service to interface with the NASA/USAF Virtual Mission Operations Centre demonstration. UK-DMC also includes an experimental CISCO router to allow flexible on-board intermodule communication. Key to the DMC mission success and cost-effectiveness has been the use of the SSTL philosophy of intelligent reuse of existing modular spacecraft designs. This philosophy can be extended to mission level, with the prospective addition of further DMC satellites for additional members to further improve system capacity and response. The use of standards and design re-use extends beyond the detailed spacecraft design choices. Much of the application success has been due to the initial choice of standard Landsat spectral bands (2, 3 and 4) allowing many existing applications to be serviced with standard techniques on the ground. Image processing and product standards are also used to improve the speed of response for time-sensitive applications such as disaster management and improve user-friendliness of the data product. This paper presents an overview of the DMC mission, applications and its success so far. The SSTL design philosophy behind this success is also discussed with emphasis on design re-use and standards. Finally the future prospects for the DMC mission and potential follow-on missions with Infra-Red and hi-resolution sensors are discussed.
Presentation Slides
Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) – Success Based On Small Satellite Technologies
The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) currently provides a 24 hour revisit capability for any point on the globe. With a 600km swath width and 32m ground sample distance it provides a unique resource for developing and extending the capabilities in a variety of application areas. The DMC has demonstrated its ability to respond to disasters such as the Asian tsunami event and others, as well as serving other applications in precision farming, mapping, prospecting, and scientific research. The paper will focus on the wide range of applications that can be accomplished with a relatively small spacecraft constellation infrastructure. The DMC mission has also successfully demonstrated the operational use of IP protocols in space, and during 2004 successfully used the ground web-service to interface with the NASA/USAF Virtual Mission Operations Centre demonstration. UK-DMC also includes an experimental CISCO router to allow flexible on-board intermodule communication. Key to the DMC mission success and cost-effectiveness has been the use of the SSTL philosophy of intelligent reuse of existing modular spacecraft designs. This philosophy can be extended to mission level, with the prospective addition of further DMC satellites for additional members to further improve system capacity and response. The use of standards and design re-use extends beyond the detailed spacecraft design choices. Much of the application success has been due to the initial choice of standard Landsat spectral bands (2, 3 and 4) allowing many existing applications to be serviced with standard techniques on the ground. Image processing and product standards are also used to improve the speed of response for time-sensitive applications such as disaster management and improve user-friendliness of the data product. This paper presents an overview of the DMC mission, applications and its success so far. The SSTL design philosophy behind this success is also discussed with emphasis on design re-use and standards. Finally the future prospects for the DMC mission and potential follow-on missions with Infra-Red and hi-resolution sensors are discussed.
