A new disaster monitoring satellite — designed to provide detailed images of any part of the world at times of need — has passed stringent thermal vacuum tests, within the UK’s largest thermal vacuum chamber, at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The UK-DMC-2 satellite, funded and built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), will join the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) — a network of four satellites already in orbit around the Earth — to provide higher performance imaging capabilities. The satellites currently in orbit allow daily imaging of any given point on the globe and have been successfully providing data and images in support of deforestation, disaster relief and agricultural monitoring.

The thermal vacuum tests, carried out in the Space Test Chamber at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, simulated the extreme temperature and vacuum in which the satellite will operate in-orbit some 686 km above the Earth. The satellite was placed inside the 3 m diameter tank and the electronics were wired up before the doors were closed and the tank evacuated of air, leaving the satellite in a vacuum. During the thermal cycling the satellite was subjected to hot and cold temperatures between 50° and -20°C and the SSTL engineers carried out various functional tests to ensure that it will operate effectively in space.

Graham Toplis from the Space Science & Technology Department at RAL said, “Satellites have to survive some pretty extreme conditions in orbit and tests like these are essential to check for any problems before launch. It is great to see that SSTL’s latest satellite is fighting fit and will soon be able to join the others in this important disaster monitoring network.”