Indian launch for British colour video Earth observation prototype

The satellite, known as CARBONITE-2 by its builder, Surrey Satellite Terchnology Ltd (SSTL) and as VividX2 by its operator, Earth-I (based, like SSTL, in Guildford) is intended to demonstrate and prove technology to acquire high-definition, full-colour video of the Earth’s surface from an altitude of 550km.

Capable of gathering 50 frames of images per second, the equipment should be able to resolve objects as small as 65cm on the ground. If successful, Earth-i plans to launch a constellation of 15 such satellites, which could have applications in disaster relief and monitoring rapidly-changing situations.

While video Earth observation from orbit is not a new concept, previously only short clips at relatively low resolution and not in full colour have been recorded. Moreover, VividX2 is a trial of a new approach to Earth observation. Rather than using components developed specifically for space, its video equipment is commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics originally developed for mobile devices. A previous demonstrator, also made by SSTL, proved the feasibility of using this approach for video capture and transmission; the new satellite adds auxiliary systems such as enhanced avionics, data storage, fast downlink and improved pointing accuracy, as well as a full-colour HD camera.