IMECE Recon Satellite

[Yoyo]

IMEGE reconnaissance satellite is Turkey's first fully indigenous high-resolution (sub-meter) imagery satellite. Construction is complete. Testing is currently underway. Launch is scheduled for 2021.

Some of the indigenous Turkish systems on board:

• Electro-Optical Satellite Camera (sub-meter resolution)
• X-Band Communication System,
• Star Tracker,
• Sun Sensor,
• Hall Effect Thruster System,
• Reaction Wheel,
• Payload Data Storage,
• Compression and Formatting Unit, and
• Next Generation Onboard Computer

Orbit: Satellite will follow a sun-synchronous polar trajectory, commonly used by many spy satellites.

Mission Duration: Imece is expected to serve for up to 15 years.

Launch Vehicle: To be determined.

Launch Date: To be determined.

 

[Yoyo]

IMECE's main sensor is a multi-spectral (optical + near infrared) camera that features a resolution of 70cm. It was developed by TUBITAK-UZAY.

It is said to be capable of reading a car's license plate from space.

 

[Cabatli_TR]

YÇU satellite (Continuation of Gokturk-1) will have domestic CMOS camera (0,3m) in similar orbit levels with Gokturk-1.

 

[Yoyo]

YÇU satellite (Continuation of Gokturk-1) will have domestic CMOS camera (0,3m) in similar orbit levels with Gokturk-1.

30cm resolution gets you into the realm of being able to take a picture of somebody's face from space.

 

[Cabatli_TR]

Take a look at impressive resolution (50cm) of Israeli new ofek-16 satellite.

First images from Israel's Ofek-16 satellite launched last month

In preparation for operational activity, the Defense Ministry and Israel Aerospace Industries on Tuesday released images taken by the Ofek 16 satellite over Syria. Ofek 16, which was successfully launched into space last month, is an electro-optical reconnaissance satellite with advanced...

defencehub.live

30cm Turkish satellite will be better than these sharp images.

 

[triangle]

When is the 30cm resolution satellite planned to go up?

 

[Bayraktar TB2]

When is the 30cm resolution satellite planned to go up?

Magic year 2023

 

[triangle]

Will they be able to reach 10cm resolution by 2030?

 

[Bayraktar TB2]

Göktürk 1 colored images. BW is 0.5m.

 

[Nilgiri]

Will they be able to reach 10cm resolution by 2030?

Potentially.

Having worked in this area before, the main (limiting factor) issue is continued improvement of peak and sustained power dissipation of the circuitry involved in handling the sensors and control architecture developed for it in the delta T segments and other design drivers today.

The science is very well understood to reach any crazy resolution you want, the issue is the volume/mass (and thus energy densities we engineers have to work with) to keep everything well balanced and in a fitting compromise especially given feedback on the delicate sensor itself.

Improvements here are thus iterative mostly based on material RnD, sizing RnD and energy (esp heat) RnD....but the overall path is pretty much laid out ahead and largely well known.

 

[triangle]

Potentially.

Having worked in this area before, the main (limiting factor) issue is continued improvement of peak and sustained power dissipation of the circuitry involved in handling the sensors and control architecture developed for it in the delta T segments and other design drivers today.

The science is very well understood to reach any crazy resolution you want, the issue is the volume/mass (and thus energy densities we engineers have to work with) to keep everything well balanced and in a fitting compromise especially given feedback on the delicate sensor itself.

Improvements here are thus iterative mostly based on material RnD, sizing RnD and energy (esp heat) RnD....but the overall path is pretty much laid out ahead and largely well known.

Thanks!

 

[Yoyo]

Telescopes that look up into space use "adaptive optics" to deal with the ripple effect of the moving atmospheric gasses. Do recon satellites use something similar to that to look down on Earth?

 

[Nilgiri]

Telescopes that look up into space use "adaptive optics" to deal with the ripple effect of the moving atmospheric gasses. Do recon satellites use something similar to that to look down on Earth?

View attachment 1350

View attachment 1351

Yes and no.

The medium (atmosphere) in between is of course the same, so overall obstacle conceptually is the same at top tier system layout (and broad science) and solution.....but lot of things are different (that come into play in big way below block diagram for example, in specific science and engineering):

- Imaging requirements (distances and aperture involved, and resolutions needed)

- Volume and mass budget, very different for an optical system on the ground that can be sized outward with little restriction and far more ease compared to space system you need to launch at mass/volume and thus severely constrained

- Direction of the imaging....ground based system is immersed in the atmosphere and looking out into space past it... this also creates a different design driver for the optic and optic control compared to having a system in space looking reverse way...this is related to aperture that I mention before too...as basically you get a different intensity and pattern of the turbulence/scintillation effect in the raw ray-modelling that you account for in the control/post-processing algorithms.

- The material/objects of note also must be considered...these vary greatly between the two...given scattering and other effects of light on a close planetary system (compared to far field imaging for deep space, milky way or solar system etc). This can often trump the atmosphere consideration altogether as bigger design driver (sometimes often to the near-exclusion of it given heritage known science baked in), it depends on what you would like to image the most and how you would like to proceed imaging it...especially the more real-time and even dynamic imaging requirements you may have.

=====

Hopefully a bit later I can bring an expert (good friend of mine) to talk about these more here down the road. I have limited knowledge on it.

My own expertise on it was different thing than the optics per se... I was working on the heat/thermal side of it and some vibration considerations too. That is lot less interesting subject overall to many, but it is also very transferable side...as now I dont work in satellites anymore at all.

 

[Yoyo]

Yes and no.

The medium (atmosphere) in between is of course the same, so overall obstacle conceptually is the same at top tier system layout (and broad science) and solution.....but lot of things are different (that come into play in big way below block diagram for example, in specific science and engineering):

- Imaging requirements (distances and aperture involved, and resolutions needed)

- Volume and mass budget, very different for an optical system on the ground that can be sized outward with little restriction and far more ease compared to space system you need to launch at mass/volume and thus severely constrained

- Direction of the imaging....ground based system is immersed in the atmosphere and looking out into space past it... this also creates a different design driver for the optic and optic control compared to having a system in space looking reverse way...this is related to aperture that I mention before too...as basically you get a different intensity and pattern of the turbulence/scintillation effect in the raw ray-modelling that you account for in the control/post-processing algorithms.

- The material/objects of note also must be considered...these vary greatly between the two...given scattering and other effects of light on a close planetary system (compared to far field imaging for deep space, milky way or solar system etc). This can often trump the atmosphere consideration altogether as bigger design driver (sometimes often to the near-exclusion of it given heritage known science baked in), it depends on what you would like to image the most and how you would like to proceed imaging it...especially the more real-time and even dynamic imaging requirements you may have.

=====

Hopefully a bit later I can bring an expert (good friend of mine) to talk about these more here down the road. I have limited knowledge on it.

My own expertise on it was different thing than the optics per se... I was working on the heat/thermal side of it and some vibration considerations too. That is lot less interesting subject overall to many, but it is also very transferable side...as now I dont work in satellites anymore at all.

Nice, thanks for the info @Nilgiri it'd be nice to have your friend contribute to these topics at the expert level.
AFAIK, satellites make use of their thrusters and internally their reaction wheels/gyros to orient their cameras toward a target, and because there's no friction in space they can hold that position precisely until clouds, mountains or the curvature of the Earth itself begins to obstruct the view. But what you described above regarding the physics of adaptive optics and how it's same but also different looking in from the outside made a lot of sense. Thanks again.