{"id":28401,"date":"2023-05-06T12:39:16","date_gmt":"2023-05-06T12:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night"},"modified":"2023-05-06T13:02:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T13:02:19","slug":"uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night","title":{"rendered":"UK \u2018knitted satellite\u2019 will see Earth day or night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Two British companies are to fly an innovative, low-cost radar satellite \u2013 part of which will be knitted on a knitting machine. Called CarbSar, the mission will launch next year, and could help fill a gap in Britain\u2019s spying capacity.<\/p>\n

The satellite will use radar technology to see through cloud and will even work at night. The Ukraine conflict has shown the value of such systems, which have been used to monitor Russian positions.<\/p>\n

But Britain is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council without its own system. The two UK companies \u2013 Surrey Satellite Technology Limited and Oxford Space Systems \u2013 believe they can provide a similar, home-grown capability.<\/p>\n

They will start building their spacecraft this year \u2013 with government support \u2013 and with a launch on an American rocket already booked. SSTL has a long-established reputation for aerospace manufacturing; the real novelty is in the OSS radar antenna.<\/p>\n

It features a knitted tungsten wire mesh that\u2019s folded tightly for launch but which will spring out once in orbit to form a large umbrella-like shape. It\u2019s through this 3m-wide antenna\/reflector that the satellite will image the ground.<\/p>\n

SSTL and OSS hope their CarbSar pathfinder will put them in a strong position to win future contracts to supply operational spacecraft to the UK government for both civil and military applications.<\/p>\n

The government is keen to see what the knitted satellites can achieve. Part of the funding has come from the National Security Strategic Investment Fund, which backs promising technologies that might be used for national security and defence.<\/p>\n

SSTL will build the bulk of CarbSar, including all the internal systems that drive the satellite, and the electronics that make the radar work. OSS will provide its deployable antenna\/reflector, a prototype of which is already going through testing at the company\u2019s Harwell headquarters.<\/p>\n

The firm calls the structure a \u201cwrapped rib\u201d design. The gold-plated tungsten mesh is attached to series of carbon-composite rods which can be wound radially against a central hub.<\/p>\n

The idea is that once released, the strain energy in these rods, or ribs, will naturally want to jump back into their straightened configuration, pulling the mesh into position in the process.<\/p>\n

Think of the builder\u2019s tape measure and how it always wants to snap longways when unrolled. OSS has a big rig at its factory where it practices stowing and deploying the antenna, time and time again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need it to be as simple as possible because the more parts you have the more chance there is for something to go wrong,\u201d explains company CEO Sean Sutcliffe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also got to work every time, so you need to make sure it has enough strain energy to know that it\u2019s definitely going to come out fully \u2013 that it won\u2019t stall half way through.<\/p>\n

But then you also don\u2019t want the system to have so much energy that it tears itself apart or damages the satellite,\u201d he told BBC News. The mesh itself is remarkable \u2013 as is the process of manufacturing it.<\/p>\n

The yarn is almost invisible. Reels of it feed the industrial knitting machine in the factory which is operated by a former fashion lecturer from Denmark.<\/p>\n

Precision is everything. When the mesh is pulled tight it must conform to exacting standards. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a laser scanner and we scan the mesh before stowing and after deployment to check it hasn\u2019t deviated from the parabolic shape.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re seeking less than a millimetre\u2019s deviation,\u201d said OSS business development director Michael Lawrence. The UK has talked for some years about having a network of radar satellites.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defence has been promised money to procure them. But the sensing technology is very useful also in civil emergency situations, such as monitoring the extent of flooding or finding evidence of landslips and subsidence.<\/p>\n

Radar guarantees an image every time the satellite passes overhead because its vision is unobstructed by whatever the weather might be doing at the time.<\/p>\n

SSTL launched a radar satellite of its own in 2018 but it is hoping the CarbSar model will have added appeal. For one thing, it should have much higher resolution, seeing objects less than a metre across.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Two British companies are to fly an innovative, low-cost radar satellite \u2013 part of which will be knitted on a knitting machine. Called CarbSar, the mission will launch next year, and could help fill a gap in Britain\u2019s spying capacity. The satellite will use radar technology to see through cloud and will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,246,245,841],"class_list":["post-28401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-uk"],"yoast_head":"\nUK \u2018knitted satellite\u2019 will see Earth day or night - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two British companies are to fly an innovative, low-cost radar satellite \u2013 part of which will be knitted on a knitting m ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK \u2018knitted satellite\u2019 will see Earth day or night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two British companies are to fly an innovative, low-cost radar satellite \u2013 part of which will be knitted on a knitting m ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-06T12:39:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-06T13:02:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683360767.48.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UK \u2018knitted satellite\u2019 will see Earth day or night\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-06T12:39:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-06T13:02:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night\"},\"wordCount\":726,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683360767.48.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"UK\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/uk-knitted-satellite-will-see-earth-day-or-night\",\"name\":\"UK \u2018knitted satellite\u2019 will see Earth day or night - 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