13 th November 2006

QinetiQ Optical Technology For Smaller Micro-satellites


TopSat, the micro-satellite designed and built by a QinetiQ-led consortium of British firms, was crowned as the Aviation and Space Grand Award Winner at Popular Science’s 2006 Best of What’s New Awards in New York City.

TopSat received the Aviation and Space Grand Award – the top award for aerospace technology, from Popular Science, the best selling science and technology magazine in the world. The magazine’s editors sifted through thousands of entries before concluding that TopSat, which provides high resolution images of the earth at low cost, is an innovation that has the potential to change satellite and space reconnaissance technology.

TopSat was designed and built by a consortium of British companies led by QinetiQ, whose role included systems design and technical authority, provision of payload electronics units, project and operations management and data reception. Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) developed and manufactured the satellite platform and was responsible for the integration of the payload testing, arranging the launch at Cosmos, and commissioning the satellite platform in orbit through their satellite control station. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) designed and manufactured the satellite’s sophisticated off-axis camera and Infoterra is marketing TopSat image products.
The 5-year TopSat programme was jointly funded by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and the UK Ministry of Defence at a mission cost below £14m.
Instruments used on spacecraft, such as atmospheric sensors for improving weather forecasting and monitoring climate change, could become smaller and more lightweight following the award of a contract to QinetiQ.

Hollow waveguide

Scientists at QinetiQ’s Optronics Centre will develop its patented hollow waveguide (HWG) optical integration technology for use in optical space instrumentation, with the aim of improving the performance and reliability of space sensors and reducing their costs.

ESA has awarded QinetiQ a 310,000 euro (£210,000) contract to develop two demonstrator systems in order to assess the potential of the technology for space missions. Optical systems for micro-satellites are an area of initial interest, but hollow waveguide optical integration technology could be used in a wide range of sensors for earth observation, planetary exploration, atmospheric sensing and optical communications.

QinetiQ’s unique approach involves hollow waveguides being used to guide light through a circuit of optical components located in a common substrate. Both the hollow waveguide channels and the alignment slots that the components are located in are formed in the surface of the substrate using either milling or etching techniques. In the same way that copper tracks carry electrons around a circuit board, the hollow waveguides guide light between the optical components.

This approach has the potential to simplify and speed manufacture, reduce mass and volume and to improve performance, particularly in harsh environmental conditions.
Inventor of the concept, Prof Mike Jenkins of QinetiQ’s Optronics Centre said: “I am delighted that ESA is interested in the potential of our hollow waveguide motherboard technology for space sensors and has recognised that our expertise and intellectual property rights mean we are uniquely placed to take their interest forward.”

“By avoiding the need to mount each optical component in a heavy, bulky and costly mount, the approach can reduce the weight, volume and cost of optical sensors. The optical guidance between components also improves performance and reliability in harsh vibration and thermal environments and eases manufacturing tolerances. This characteristic leads to simple, low-cost mass manufacture and provides a novel optical technology with significant commercial potential in space and in the adjacent markets of telecommunications, defence and security.”

Kotska Wallace, Technical Officer in ESA’s Mechanical Engineering Department said: "ESA looks forward to an analysis and demonstration of the advantages that could be provided by using HWGs. Technology that allows miniaturisation and ruggedisation of components is an essential factor in the reduction of size and cost of future satellite systems.”

QinetiQ has developed hollow waveguide integrated optical systems using both glass-ceramic and silicon substrate materials. The initial aim of the eighteen month project will be to assess design concepts and manufacturing processes to meet the challenging environment of space.

The project team will then focus on the development, manufacture and testing of two prototypes – an active LIDAR (that can determine wind speed) and a passive spectrometer (a device used to measure the properties of light and often used in astronomy.)

Web: http://www.qinetiq.com/home/commercial/space.html