The development of a satellite-borne Earth imaging system for UOSAT

Earth imaging systems have, in the past, involved the construction of fairly complex photographic and photoelectrical conversion techniques. Furthermore, the format of data transmission has restricted the widespread use such data in educational establishments due to the fairly complex and costly receiving and display apparatus required. In this paper the development of a simple imager using a two-dimensional c.c.d. array is described. The design considerations were to reduce power consumption, weight and size, and to assemble the data in a format that could be received with very simple apparatus and displayed on a domestic television receiver. The resolution of the camera is 256 x 256 pixels with a 16-level grey scale; ground coverage is approximately 480 km square.