Telespazio VEGA UK can support a mission from an extremely early stage. Our extensive experience in space ground segment activities and satellite operations allows us to draw upon the lessons learned from numerous past missions, bringing benefits at a very early point in the design and development process.
Phase A Studies: CoReH2O and BIOMASS
TVUK was responsible for coordinating the ground segment elements of the Earth Explorer 7 candidate missions for both the Cold Regions Hydrology High Resolution Observatory (CoReH2O) and BIOMASS missions in two separate studies.
CoReH2O was proposed to be the first satellite mission dedicated to making global measurements of freshwater stored in snow on land surfaces and snow accumulated on glaciers and ice caps through the observation of snow and ice properties at high spatial resolutions using twin frequency synthetic aperture radars.
BIOMASS is to provide the scientific community with the first accurate maps of tropical, temperate and boreal forest biomass, including height and disturbance patterns through observations with a P-Band SAR.
TVUK coordinated all aspects of the ground segment elements of the studies, including mission planning, processing, the Flight Operations Segment (FOS) and the Payload Data Ground Segment (PDGS). We had direct responsibility for the analysis of the PDGS elements related to:
- Acquisition and Ingestion
- Archiving
- Dissemination
- QC & Cal/Val
- Monitoring & Control
- User Segment
BIOMASS was selected by ESA as the preferred candidate to become the Earth Explorer 7 mission.
Phase B1 Study: BIOMASS
Continuing on from the Phase A study, TVUK was again involved in the later Phase B1 study for BIOMASS.
Responsible for coordinating the ground segment elements of the analysis in the same manner as the Phase A study, we also had responsibility for the generation of the Mission Operations Concept.