Small Satellites for Earth Observation Selected Contributions

The 6^th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation, initiated by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), was again hosted by DLR, the German Aerospace Center. The participation of scientists, engineers, and managers from 24 countries reflected the high interest in the use of small satellites for dedicated missions applied to Earth observation.

As in the previous symposia, the contributions showed that dedicated Earth observation missions cover a wide range of very different tasks. These missions provide increased opportunities for access to space and can be conducted relatively quickly and inexpensively. The spacecraft bus, the instruments, and the ground systems can be based either on optimized off-the-shelf systems with little or no requirements for new technology, or on new high-technology designs. Thus a new class of advanced small satellite missions, including autonomously-operating “intelligent” satellites and satellite constellations can be created, opening new fields of application for science and the public.

The symposium provided 11 sessions for oral presentations and one poster session. Furthermore, in our 6^th Symposium the Student Prize Paper Competition has been continued. The student papers have been evaluated by distinguished judges selected from academia, industry and government, coming from four continents. The finalists presented their papers in the Student Conference session.

Programmatics.- NASA Earth Observation Programs and Small Satellites.- Incubating Domestic Space-Qualified Manufacturers Through ROCSAT Programs.- Trends and Visions for Small Satellite Missions.- Development of the MicroSat Programme at INTA.- Missions (1).- Moving Towards Commercial Earth Observation Services with Small Satellite Constellations.- PROBA Spacecraft Family.- Small Satellites and Earth Observation Systems for Small Countries and Regions.- Instruments.- Development of a High-Performance Optical System for Small Satellites.- Comparison of Atmospheric Ozone Measurements Between NASA’s Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and the FASAT-BRAVO Ozone Mapping Detector (OMAD).- Serious Microsats Need Serious Instruments, MIBS and the First Results.- Constellations.- Feasibility of a Constellation of Miniature Satellites for Perform ing Measurements of the Magnetic Field of the Earth.- Preliminary Concepts and Analysis of Future Earth Observation Missions Based on Distributed Radars.- The Swarm Magnetometry Package.- EO Formation Flying Applications for Small Satellite Missions.- Subsystems (1).- GPS for Microsatellites – Status and Perspectives.- On-the-Fly Merging of Attitude Solutions.- Design and On-Orbit Evaluation of Magnetic Attitude Control System for the “REIMEI” Microsatellite.- GPS and Low Cost Sensors in Navigation.- Students Session.- GPS Based Attitude Determination for the Flying Laptop Satellite.- Electromagnetic Formation Flight System Design.- Preliminary System Simulation Environment of the University Micro-Satellite Flying Laptop.- A Miniaturised UV Imaging Spectrometer for Remote Sensing of Atmosphere: Volcanic Sulphur Dioxide, Ozone, and Aerosols.- BeeSat Attitude Determination and Control System.- Special Aspects.- Initial SPHERESOperations Aboard the International Space Station.- BIRD Microsatellite Thermal Control System – 5 Years of Operation in Space.- The “Mailbox Gound Station” – A Procedure to Improve the Operational Key Requirements of Earth Observation Systems.- A Software-Defined Radio Approach for the Implementation of Ground Station Receivers.- Missions (2).- Mission Requirements and Analysis of Indonesia’s Second Generation Satellite to Support Food Security Program.- A Low-Cost Microsatellite Platform for Multispectral Earth Observation.- Nano-Satellites for Micro-Technology Pre-Qualification: The Delfi Program of Delft University of Technology.- Spacecraft Bus.- Development of the Method of the Creation of Micro Satellite (~50 kg) Platforms for the Fundamental and Applied Research of the Earth and Near-Earth Outer Space.- Indigenous Mission of Satellite System Development Program in Taiwan.- Lessons Learned.- First Year in Orbit – Results from the Beijing-1 Operational High Resolution Small Satellite.- An Introduction to FORMOSAT-2’s Global Effectiveness.- TopSat: Lessons Learned from a Small Satellite Mission.- Subsystems (2).- High Data Rate X-Band Transmitter for Low Earth Orbit Satellites.- Flowing Taks: Scalable Software Dependability and Performance.