Teledyne Dalsa and Denel Spaceteq to develop Earth observation satellite

07 Oct 2015

Custom multispectral sensors scheduled for manufacture by 2017; benefits for agriculture.

Image sensor technology developer Teledyne Dalsa is to partner with Denel Spaceteq, Stellenbosch, South Africa, a high-performance satellite systems and solutions provider to African and international aerospace market, with the aim of developing a new multi-spectral image sensor for advanced earth observations.

With Teledyne Dalsa’s experience in multispectral imaging, and Spaceteq’s background in earth observation satellites, this multimillion dollar development project is expected to return high resolution images by 2019 when the next satellite launch is scheduled.

The earth observation application will contribute to the ARMC (African Resource Management are expected to enable acquisition of data for applications such as agriculture, crop and forestry management, urban planning, environment and disaster monitoring.

Sensor priority

Patrick Ndhlovu, General Manager of Spaceteq, commented, “We’re excited to see this project move forward with Teledyne Dalsa. Earth observation satellites are developed by firstly choosing the ideal sensor, then the optics, and then building the rest around that. With their deep understanding of multispectral and hyperspectral imaging, and the challenges associated with these harsh environments, Teledyne Dalsa is an obvious choice for this critical aspect of our product.”

Jean Pierre Luevano, International Sales Manager at Teledyne Dalsa, said, “Our experience with system designs optimized for radiation hardness and extreme environments will give Spaceteq and its customer a competitive advantage in today’s earth observation market by providing unprecedented high resolution images at very small ground resolutions.”

Teledyne Dalsa’s multispectral imaging solutions leverage its long experience in design, fabrication and packaging technologies to achieve multispectral sensitivity in a single fully miniaturized package. A single device can contain multiple imaging areas tailored to different multispectral bandwidths. Positioning advanced dichroic filters directly in the imaging area achieves highly efficient multispectral sensors at various resolutions.

About Denel Spaceteq

Denel Spaceteq is a provider of high-performance small- and medium-sized satellites and related systems and solutions to the local and international aerospace market. Spaceteq through the absorption of SunSpace has its origins in the SUNSAT satellite programme of Stellenbosch University.

SUNSAT, South Africa's first satellite, was developed completely by a local team of engineers, and launched in 1999 by the American space agency NASA. Most of the team who designed and developed SUNSAT forms the core of Spacteq today.

About the Author

Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to optics.org.