Some aspects of ROCSAT-2 system engineering

Abstract

The ROCSAT-2 is designated to the second satellite of the Republic of China. It is expected to be launched in 2003, and is designed primarily to image the region of Taiwan Island. The satellite will be operated in a circular sun-synchronous orbit with exactly 14 revolutions per day. By virtue of the nearly global coverage of the orbit, the images taken by ROCSAT-2 can also be acquired through international cooperation if the foreign ground stations are capable of receiving the downlink data. The satellite will provide high tasking agility for along-track or cross-track imaging with 45° field of regard. The remote sensing instrument (RSI) has four Landsat-like multi-spectral visible bands. It will provide images for 2 m ground sampling distance (GSD) in panchromatic band and 8 m GSD in multi-spectral bands over 24 km swath in the nadir direction. The secondary payload of ROCSAT-2 is a scientific instrument called the imager of sprite, the upper atmospheric lightning (ISUAL). It will be the first payload to observe the upper atmospheric lightning from space. The objective of this experiment is to study the nature of the electrodynamic coupling between thundercloud and upper atmosphere. The system engineering analysis for ROCSAT-2 is presented in this paper. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.