AAD 2016: Innovative space technology displayed at show

SCS Aerospace Group, South Africa’s biggest private satellite concern, is showcasing a number of new home-grown satellite products at AAD which runs until the end of this week. The products includes the new lightweight high-performance satellite, the SCS150, designed for global environmental and infrastructure monitoring as well as a mission overview of a privately funded technology demonstration satellite destined to do various scientific experiments and test some of their new advanced electronics in space.

“We will be testing the technology of our newly developed SCS Gecko, an ultra-compact imager specially developed for the small satellite market plus do some radiation tests on reprogrammable electronics on South Africa's first privately funded small satellite due for an early 2017 launch,” said Dr. Sias Mostert, Chairman of SCS Aerospace Group.

“The satellite will also do a number of important experiments as part of a contribution to the QB50 international science mission.  This includes measuring atomic oxygen flux in Earth’s lower atmosphere which is a crucial parameter in the correlation and validation of atmospheric models.

“The radiation experiments are done in conjunction with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to test radiation hardening of reprogrammable electronics in space using proprietary and patented IP developed by them,” said Mostert.