Session
Technical Session II: Applications
Abstract
The Tactical Imaging Experiment and Demonstration System (TIDES) goal is to develop a small imaging satellite for tactical applications where the field commander controls the satellite and achieves a launch on demand at a reasonable cost. The TIDES imaging payload is two modified Schmidt cameras, coupled with linear charged couple devices capable of producing 5 meter resolution at a 700 km polar sun synchronous orbit. Innovations such as Vector Quantization (VQ) technology with a new developed codebook processing chip (CPC) demonstrates the ability to compress images at ratios of 12 to 1 or greater reducing satellite to ground datalink bandwidth, on-board storage and power while producing images of high quality. The satellite and payload designs contain no moving parts: achieving high reliability, low cost and requiring minimal operational support. The mobile ground station permits operations from any location and can be operated by a single operator with minimum technical training and expertise. This paper presents the TIDES study and prototype results.
An Imaging Satellite System for Tactical Applications
The Tactical Imaging Experiment and Demonstration System (TIDES) goal is to develop a small imaging satellite for tactical applications where the field commander controls the satellite and achieves a launch on demand at a reasonable cost. The TIDES imaging payload is two modified Schmidt cameras, coupled with linear charged couple devices capable of producing 5 meter resolution at a 700 km polar sun synchronous orbit. Innovations such as Vector Quantization (VQ) technology with a new developed codebook processing chip (CPC) demonstrates the ability to compress images at ratios of 12 to 1 or greater reducing satellite to ground datalink bandwidth, on-board storage and power while producing images of high quality. The satellite and payload designs contain no moving parts: achieving high reliability, low cost and requiring minimal operational support. The mobile ground station permits operations from any location and can be operated by a single operator with minimum technical training and expertise. This paper presents the TIDES study and prototype results.
