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TopSat image: Mississippi Delta
25 April 2007, 9:22am
This image of the Mississippi Delta was captured by TopSat, a micro-satellite built and operated by a QinetiQ-led consortium of British firms. The Mississippi Delta is a region of cotton, rice and sugar farming that has played an important role in the social and cultural heritage of the southern United States. According to popular US legend the Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg.
TopSat is a micro-satellite system that provides high resolution imaging of the Earth quickly and at low cost. The satellite is designed to return its data directly to a mobile ground station immediately after collecting an image, allowing far more timely delivery of the information which it collects than standard satellites. The system is specifically designed to meet operational timescales, whether for disaster relief, news-gathering, or other applications where speed of response is vital.
The UK consortium behind TopSat was formed and is led by QinetiQ, an international defence and security technology company who own the satellite and are responsible for day-to-day operations. It also includes CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory who designed and built the camera, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) who built the spacecraft bus and Infoterra who are responsible for data exploitation. The programme, originally funded by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and the UK Ministry of Defence, is now a commercial venture.
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