Indigenous Mission of Satellite System Development Program in Taiwan

Abstract

Eight satellites were successfully launched in the first stage of three Taiwanese space programs. Among them, Formosat-2 launched in May 2004 with mission life of five years has performed an outstanding job in the field of disaster monitoring especially. Stepping into the second-stage long-term plan for the Taiwanese space development, the top priority for National Space Organization (NSPO) is to have an indigenous satellite on orbit. With the indigenous satellite on orbit in mind and appreciation of Formosat-2 performance, it is certainly essential for NSPO to launch another earth observation satellite as our next mission objective. In this paper, a brief description of mission definition with its associated payloads is presented and, then, following a satellite system design overview with its trade analyses is discussed. Note that the system design consideration is based on the fact that the mission is switched from former joining RapidEye constellation to the currently so-called Formosat-2 continuation mission due to unexpected surprise. Also, the satellite itself is composed of a bus platform of the intended heritage design with LEON-3 central processing unit (CPU) inside the on-board computer and accommodated with two categories of payloads for the remote-sensing application and various scientific missions. Commercial off the shelf (COTS) up-screening/qualification and validation/verification process is introduced to ensure their normal functions when operating in the severe space environments of the future flight.