Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space
is poised to revolutionize the space-based imagery market with the
development of the first commercial satellite capable of resolving objects on the ground as small as one meter in diameter. The company is
developing two spacecraft for Space Imaging EOSAT (SIE), Thornton, CO,
which provides high-resolution imagery of the Earth to customers around
the world. The first spacecraft, IKONOS 1, will be launched in 1998.
"This is the first system that brings the highest-quality photographic and
multispectral images with one-meter resolution into the private sector,"
said Tom Tadano, director of commercial remote sensing programs.
"Such systems were once the exclusive domain of a few governments.
This technology will usher in a new paradigm for the commercialization
of space imagery."
The satellites will provide high-resolution black and white and
multispectral digital pictures and other geographic imagery. These images
are used for applications in civil engineering and construction, land
management, agriculture, mining, environmental monitoring, tax
assessment, infrastructure planning and management, and other areas.
The heart of the remote sensing spacecraft is the LM900 satellite bus. The
primary payload is a digital imaging sensor capable of collecting both
monochromatic images at a resolution of one meter, and multispectral
images with a resolution of four meters. Multispectral images reveal
information that cannot be gleaned from photographic images, such as
chlorophyll content, chemical composition, and surface water penetration.
Users will be able to combine panchromatic and multispectral images to
produce images that yield advantages of both techniques.
The satellite's 680-kilometer altitude and speed of nearly seven kilometers
per second give it a wide field of view and the ability to capture large
quantities of data very quickly. For example, it can image a
13-kilometer-wide strip from central Canada to Mexico City in about 10
minutes.
Missiles & Space will also be responsible for on-orbit operations and
maintenance of both remote sensing satellites and associated ground stations.
To maximize the utility of the vast amount of data collected by the
satellites, Missiles & Space is developing the Intelligent Library System
(ILS), a large-scale digital repository that will allow SIE to store remote
sensing data, as well as to exploit and distribute the multispectral imagery
and geographic information to customers around the world.
ILS is derived from the U.S. government's Imagery Dissemination and
Exploitation system, which is used to manage and manipulate remote
sensing imagery for a variety of purposes. Remote sensing systems
provide a great deal of raw data and require immense storage facilities
and powerful computing capabilities. ILS will be able to store
multi-pedabytes (1,000 terabytes) of data.
