387 
TER 
LOW COST SMALL SATELLITES FOR EARTH OBSERVATION AND TECHNOLOGY 
TRANSFER TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
)roté* 
***, Rob 
Martin Sweeting*, Wei Sun* 
* Surrey Space Centre - University of Surrey 
Guildford Surrey GU2 5XH 
United Kingdom 
ISPRS Commission VI Working Group 3 
Abstract 
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The Surrey Space Centre of University of Surrey in England has pioneered low cost small satellites 
for Earth Observation since the fifth of its microsatellites (UoSAT-5) was launched in 1991. 
UoSAT-5 was the only non-government controlled satellite providing independent Earth imaging 
over Iraq following the Gulf war. Another nine microsatellites and minisatellites carrying remote 
sensing payloads have been launched by Surrey since then. These satellites are so called 'Smaller, 
Faster, Cheaper and Better' satellites. The typical cost of a Surrey's EO microsatellite is around 
$3M. At this fractional cost of the conventional Earth observation satellites, the latest Surrey's 
microsatellite - TMSAT has been transmitting LandSAT MSS equivalent images since it was 
launched in July 1998. Recently, UoSAT-12 which is the first Surrey minisatellite was launched on 
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21 April 1999 and is providing 8m panchromatic and 32-metre multi-spectral images in 6 bands. 
Customers such as Korea, Thailand, Portugal, Chile, Malaysia and PR China have the complete 
ownership of microsatellites built collaboratively at Surrey and are able to take pictures whenever 
and wherever they want in the world. The satellites are controlled and images are received by the 
mission control groundstations installed in their own countries at cost of around $350,000. These 
countries have also acquired microsatellite know-how transfer from Surrey through design, 
manufacture, test and launch their first national microsatellite with full participation of a team of 
validation 
engineers from these nations. They often became the nucleus of their national space agencies, such 
as Korea who built their second satellite (KITSAT-2) back in their own country and now KITSAT- 
3 is going to be launched on 29 May 1999. The 'Surrey Space Club' was formed by these partners to 
promote international co-operation, particularly on remote sensing applications using these low cost 
small satellites. A 'Disaster Monitoring Network' comprising seven microsatellites in 772 km sun- 
synchronized orbit is the focus for the first collaborative mission of the Surrey Space Club 
members. The network is able to provide daily images anywhere in the world with four spectral- 
bands at resolution 40m. African countries are welcome to participate in this project. The paper will 
describe these extremely low cost Earth observation microsatellites and minisatellites, show some 
remarkable pictures taken by these small satellites, present an affordable and comprehensive 
microsatellite know-how transfer programme to developing countries and discuss the Disaster 
Network proposal for international co - operation.