Preliminary Design of Imaging Microsatellite for Preventing Illegal Fishing in Indonesia

Abstract

A constellation of imaging microsatellite system using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Automatic Identification System (AIS) has been developed to prevent illegal fishing in Indonesia. The constellation of microsatellite is shown to be able to cover the entire area of Indonesia during 24 hours duration. Each satellite is capable of taking pictures with minimum resolution of 3 meter per pixel and swath width of 28.55 km. AIS equipped in each satellite will collect data of the ships operating on sea area of Indonesia. The information about the ships collected by AIS will then be compared to the picture captured by SAR to determine if the ships are fishing illegally or not. To support the mission, each satellite is equipped with sun sensors, earth sensors, and GPS to precisely determine its attitude and position. In addition, each satellite also equipped with Control Moment Gyros (CMGs) capable of precision pointing and high slew rate maneuver with low power consumption. The payload communication of the satellite will use VHF and X-band while the TT&C will use S-band. Furthermore, each satellite requires a total of 838 W to operate which correspond to 6 m2 of solar panel and 8.8 kg and 590 Wh of batteries. Finally, it is concluded that each satellite has 95 kg of total mass and costs around $ 5.4 million to develop.