Latest News
ABSL Selected to Supply Infrared Calibration System for SLSTR
30th July 2008
ABSL Space Products is proud to announce the award of a contract for the design, development, and manufacture of the infrared calibration system and high-precision temperature acquisition electronics for the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR). This instrument will be launched in 2012 on the Sentinel-3 spacecraft as part of the joint ESA and EC GMES programme. The contract was awarded to ABSL Space Products by Jena-Optronik GmbH following a competitive tender process.
The AATSR Infrared Calibration System Previously supplied by ABSL to Astrium
The SLSTR is a multi-channel optical imager in the visible-infrared spectrum providing land and sea temperatures to an accuracy of better that 0.3 K as data for advanced numerical weather forecasting models and the monitoring of global warming.
The infrared calibration system, commonly known as a black body, is a highly uniform temperature source, with low reflectivity and ultra precision temperature read-out system. It provides an accurate source of radiance that will be intermittently viewed by the SLSTR instrument during its seven year operational life to calibrate the instrument’s detectors and optics. Typically, such devices have a reflectivity of less than 0.5% and a temperature measurement precision of better than 50mK.
Additionally, ABSL has been selected to provide the Temperature Acquisition Electronics (TAE) which provides forty-eight channels of precision temperature telemetry from various components of the SLSTR instrument.
ABSL is Europe’s leading supplier of such systems with twelve highly accurate black body reference sources in orbit and a further six awaiting to be launched. ABSL has provided these systems for other missions such as AATSR, MIPAS, Severi, GERB, IASI as well as a number of ground based systems with even higher accuracy.
ABSL Space Products Director Rob Spurrett said “I am very proud of the contribution that ABSL will be making to this mission. ABSL’s calibration sources were used on the early ATSR instruments which remain world-beating with respect to their precision. The data from AATSR will be extended by SLSTR for a further twenty years providing a continuous data set that will further scientific understanding of our planet and its climate.”
ABSL Power Solutions wins best technology award at Soldier Technology 2008
26th June 2008
ABSL Power Solutions Ltd (ABSL), a leading UK portable power developer and manufacturer, today announced that it has won an industry award for technology specifically designed and developed to support the fighting soldier serving on Operations. The Soldier Portable Charger (SPC) is a major step forward in reducing the burden of power on the User at a time when Operations are demanding a greater reliance on battery power.
ABSL Selected to Supply Lithium-ion Battery for GMES Sentinel 1
18th June 2008
ABSL Space Products has been selected by Thales Alenia Space Italy to provide the Lithium-ion battery for the Sentinel-1 spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 2010. This is the first of five planned Sentinel missions that form part of the GMES program - Global Monitoring for Environment and Security - a set of Earth observation missions co-funded by ESA and the European Commission. GMES represents the European answer to the ever-increasing requirements of environmental control, and thus provides an important contribution to environmental policies at a global level.
ABSL To Conduct Astronaut Spacesuit Battery Program in Colorado
20th May 2008
On 12th May 2008, at the end of a competitive process, ABSL was awarded the contract to supply Lithium-ion battery hardware to power the astronaut Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) by NASA Johnson Space Center.
Older news articles
- ABSL Lithium-ion Batteries Enable European GPS Satellite Mission To Be Extended - 15th April 2008
- ABSL Powers 4th SAR-LUPE Satellite in Orbit - 02nd April 2008
- ABSL Space Products completes ALFA-F Project - 25th January 2008
- ABSL selected for WATCHKEEPER UAV emergency battery pack - 05th December 2007
- Mars Express - 5000 orbits and counting - 29th November 2007
