TechDemoSat

UK industry and academia are working together with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) on a new innovative satellite that will trial UK space technologies and hopefully win substantial International business for the companies collaborating on the project. The mission concept is industry-led – the culmination of several leading British space companies’ and universities’ efforts to demonstrate the UK’s technical lead in space innovation.

The TechDemoSat is designed to demonstrate the advanced capabilities of state-of-the-art small satellite technology for scientific and commercial applications.  It will also be among the first missions to make use of the Operations Centre at ISIC.

TechDemoSat-1 will carry a number of payloads to demonstrate the innovative potential of today’s highly capable small satellite-based missions for applications such as monitoring the maritime environment and shipping, man’s impact on the planet and providing in-situ measurements of a wide range of space radiation from low energy plasmas to high energy cosmic ray particles.

Space debris has been a hot topic during the past two years, and is at the forefront of space research and innovation.  TechDemoSat-1 will pioneer a new technology that will safely remove the satellite from orbit at the end of its life by deploying a sail provided by Aero Sekur.  In light of the growing international concerns raised by the sheer volume of space debris in orbit around the Earth, the TechDemoSat-1 approach provides an elegant and innovative solution to manage this problem.

A large mission for a small satellite, the successful delivery and ultimate decommissioning of TechDemoSat-1 will enable UK industry and academia to qualify onboard payloads and UK satellite software, thereby overcoming the problem of a lack of in-orbit flight heritage that often becomes a major barrier to commercial success in the space industry.