From the Hidan-Hamda event: Israel in space, a look to the future
Alex Kacheko. Photo: Leon Rosenblum
The evening was opened by Eitan Karin - the host, explaining about the host center: Hamada has been operating for about 15 years as Tel Aviv's scientific educational center, students come here to study physics and chemistry, so during the day you will see a lot of teenagers studying science in sophisticated laboratories, equipment And a very rich program. In addition to this, we are reaching out to the community and this year we launched a program that we call Media Culture. Your arrival today to a scientific lecture is a cultural activity. I see no difference between it and going to the movies or the theater.
At the end of his words, Kirin complimented the Hidan website, the partner in organizing the evening, for the fact that while he rarely writes scientific news for the Hamda website, the Hidan website has 3-4 new news items updated every day.
Alex Kacheko is the deputy director of Mabat-Hell
I will give you an overview of satellites in the aerospace industry. You said satellites in the aviation industry, you said satellites in the State of Israel. on the importance of space in the world. At the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, the USA and the Soviet Union recognized the importance of the medium of space and began to use it for both military and civilian needs. We wonder how they managed without TV satellites and other apps. In the last Gulf War, the Americans participated in no less than sixty satellites. Observation satellites, communication satellites (waging a war so far from home is impossible without communication satellites.) and of course navigation - precise guidance relies on such a system of satellites. So those who look back ask themselves what we did 50 years ago and how come we didn't use satellites at all.
Another example of the importance and ability can be seen that between the years 1998 and 2004 about 600 satellites of all types were launched into space, communication satellites, observation satellites and only in the last two years about 150 satellites. It means what volume the world gives to this media called space. Countries that have been involved in space. In the sixties, very few countries were involved today, I estimate that at least 40 countries are involved in space in one way or another.
Everyone knows that following the peace with Egypt and in order for the State of Israel not to have to violate these agreements by infiltrating planes into Egypt's airspace, methods were sought to bring information from the depths of the enemy in the second and third circles and one of the means they thought of was through satellites. Although they started this activity at the beginning of 1980, in 1984 the aviation industry - Mabat company was chosen to enter this Talhom, which seemed imaginary until then, and to develop the infrastructure for the development, production and launch of satellites and to develop the first observation satellite. This was the mandate that the aerospace industry received. IAI was not satisfied with that and decided to make the space sector part of its product portfolio and part of its CORE BUSINESS, not just something it would produce for the defense system as it did in the first years, but try to sell it in the world and make as much money from it as possible.
The meaning of this decision was to become a leading player in the world regarding satellites. The aviation industry has no intentions of competing with large countries that invest aviation capital in the matter of satellites and produce large satellites. We have developed a very specific niche of less than 300 kilo satellites that do the job just as well as the larger satellites. Of course you can't cheat physics and here and there there are advantages for the big satellites. From a global point of view, it can be said that the performance of our satellites is one of the best in the world. After about 25 years of activity, we are very proud of our achievements. We have developed activity centers that include observation satellites. Everyone knows, at least by name, the Ofek satellite, and the Eros satellite, which is a commercial satellite that provides a service of photographs from space to anyone who pays, except for those to whom we have no interest in selling. TECSAR is a satellite that is under development now. And of course communication satellites that you will receive from Uncle Zusiman a much more detailed lecture - satellites from the Amos family, satellites that are smaller in size than similar satellites in the world. Amos 1 and Amos 2 are in space, Amos 3 is under development and in the future military satellites will be built for the State of Israel.
Another family - micro satellites - 100-120 kilo satellites. For all of these we provide ground stations so that we can monitor and control, receive back their products (photos, communication). We currently have three ground stations. We also launch our military satellites from the territory of the State of Israel. This means the entire range of activities from development to launching and maintenance of the satellites in space. Not many countries have this ability. The State of Israel is one of eight countries that has developed this capability in the field of satellites.
If we look at our achievements. All the launches on the right are launches that have already been carried out - launches of Ofek and Eros satellites which are observation satellites and communication satellites - Amos 1 and Amos 2 and in the middle also enters one student satellite - a micro satellite launched by a Russian rocket and developed at the Technion with the assistance of the aerospace industry. We distinguish between several types of satellites that are characterized by their height. The low satellites or observation satellites orbit the earth at an altitude of 450-500 kilometers. It is clear to everyone that if we want a better picture we need to be close to the object we want to photograph, that is the Earth.
Even when we are in space there is still drag and as a result of the drag the satellite loses altitude all the time and needs to be lifted and for that it carries some amount of fuel. That is why there is a limit to the length of life that comes from the height. Of course, the higher one is, the greater the length of life.
The second type of satellites are communication satellites located at a distance of 36 thousand kilometers on the equator, which circle the Earth once every 24 hours and since the Earth also rotates around itself in 24 hours we see these satellites as if they were standing still. That is why they are called geostationary satellites. This is an ideal situation for communication satellites because what a communication satellite does in general - you transmit something to it and it returns it like a mirror.
Usually the lifespan of these satellites is limited by the amount of fuel - a large satellite that carries a lot of fuel can live longer, a smaller satellite - when its fuel runs out it will stop functioning. Today, if you also consider the Technion satellite, there are five satellites in space - two communication satellites, two observation satellites (one civil and one military). Our plan for the future is very rich - satellites that include both civilian and military satellites - the Eros B satellite which is a civilian observation satellite that is going to be launched in a very short time and I hope for success. Of course, doing all these things is not easy, especially when you start from something very low and the first thing we did was a plan that had three legs. First of all build the infrastructure. The human infrastructure, the financial infrastructure and thus pave the way towards projects. What we did - we developed the engineering capabilities. We took the same experts who dealt with other subjects such as missiles and airplanes and adapted them to the subject of space and today we have skills, especially a new subject that does not exist elsewhere in terms of its difficulty - thermal control. In space, heat has to be dissipated in a different way than in airplanes or on the ground. An important reference to reliability engineering, including the selection of components. We know that once when we launch, we can no longer touch the satellite and there is no possibility to fix a fault in the satellite hardware. If it's in the software, you can send it to him and fix it. From a hardware point of view, it is impossible, therefore the level of reliability of the systems we develop must be one hundred percent, because as soon as we do not have this reliability, we are in a bad situation. To date we have a hundred percent success in our satellites.
From a systemic point of view, we cover the entire field - starting with the characterization of the systems (together with our client to understand the requirements), development, planning, detailed planning and construction until launch. We participate in part of the launch whether it is from the country or whether it is from abroad, as well as command and supervision of the satellite. We built an infrastructure to integrate the systems - clean rooms for the reasons that the equipment requires them. We have all the means to check the satellites before the launch if they can withstand the vibrations of the launch, if they can withstand the conditions of space in the vacuum, in the heat. And of course the facilities are all with us as part of the infrastructure. This is the combination building found in the aviation industry, a building with an area of about two thousand square meters, all of which is used by us for this role. We have three ground stations - a ground station for low satellites (military satellite), the ground station for the communication satellite - the satellite is monitored 24 hours a day. Of course, the number of people on duty is between two and three. We develop and build many of the systems ourselves. There is an entire space industry in the State of Israel, and this brings us to the entire field of observation satellites.
The space industry in Israel today employs many factories. In the Air Industry Center as a prime contractor and developer of other industries - and in addition to them - El Op, which develops the cameras, Rafael which provides propulsion systems, Tadiran and Elishara which provide communication systems, Elta which provides other types of satellites. Israel is in a good family of eight countries that have the ability to launch satellites. The launch vehicle was built by the same factory that builds the Arrow missile. We are the only ones who launch in the opposite direction - westward, we only launch over the sea and not over land, because if God forbid the parts of the missile might fall, that's something we don't want to risk.
The Eros observation satellite - very small, less than 300 kilograms, its size, 2.20 m x 1.10 is very small. The camera sits in the center and photographs the Earth. When the satellite wants to advance to some goal, it tilts its body in front of the goal line, deploys the antennas that are below and transmits the broadcast to the ground station that is ready to receive the information. For the same reason I mentioned earlier - the issue of safety, we cannot launch the satellite from Israel, that's why we launched it from a Russian missile of the Start-1 model, which is a ballistic missile that was converted and became a missile for launching satellites at minus 43 degrees in Siberia. This satellite entered orbit very eloquently and very precisely. The Russians excel in the subject of satellite launches. The reason for the launch from Russia is the plan to propel the satellite through the poles, so it also needs to be launched in that direction, and Israel cannot afford that for the reasons I explained earlier. Anyone who has a ground station can buy their products when the satellite passes within this circular area, where they have communication.
The satellite also has the option to take pictures, store it in memory and download the information. A picture taken from the Eros satellite, whose owners are Image International, in which the aviation industry has a large share. In the photo you can see Dulles Airport. You see planes on the ground, you see objects 1.5-1.8 meters in size. Whoever looks at it can get a lot of information out of it. A camera built by Al Op.
The photo was taken from an altitude of 500 kilometers. Imagine that you are standing in Metula looking at Eilat, that's more or less the distance. Today the Americans allow selling photos with a resolution of one meter. Of course our military satellites can do better than that, I can't say how much.
Another photo - of the Diego Garcia base - you can recognize the planes Ivox, B1, etc. You can see the shadow of the engines. This industry that says it sells civilian images is also very valuable in the field of the military agencies that are actually the main customers of these satellites.
So far I have talked about cameras in the visible range. There are areas that are covered by clouds most of the time where it is not worth taking pictures. And of course you can't take pictures at night. This is circumvented using methods that allow you to see both at night and in all weather conditions. The satellite transmits pulses from its radar and creates a synthetic image of the area it is photographing. A picture taken from a plane - the Armory Museum in Beltran - has a lot of information in it and of course the decoders know how to get a lot of information out of it. And of course - day, night and in any weather. It actually completes the electro-optical images.
The observation satellites in the State of Israel are characterized by extremely low weight, other satellites that perform similar things are not less than one ton, this has significance for the launch, the cost of the launch. Their features are no less than the large satellites, they have an autonomous ability to manage on their own until they find the ground station. It is possible to handle a single ground station for civil satellites with several ground stations. It is also survivable. If one system breaks down, another system kicks in. So far we have not had any malfunctions, but if, God forbid, a malfunction occurs, there is a component that will come into action (for example, the central computer).
In terms of communication satellites - in 1996 we launched the Amos 1 satellite. The aerospace industry decided to enter the field after specializing in observation satellites at its own expense in 1992 it built the Amos 1 satellite. The satellite is still alive, its expected lifespan is 12 years, in 2007 Amos was launched 3 to replace Amos 1. Amos 2 was launched in 2003 and of course has been alive ever since and provides services. Everyone who has Yes receives the broadcast directly to their homes.
These satellites provide service primarily to the State of Israel. As you move away from the center of the beam, the intensity of the service decreases. We have a beam in Central Europe - Hungary and also in the Eastern USA. We could broadcast internet from the USA, upload to satellite and download in the State of Israel without downloading and uploading twice. There are not many countries that launch communication satellites. It is desirable to launch them as close as possible to the equator, otherwise they have to use more energy. Amos 1 was launched from French Guinea using an Ariane rocket, on the other hand the second satellite was launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan which is not so close to the equator. In the first month after the launch, they arrive at the location and undergo tests. We build the satellite panels panels. Each panel is integrated on its own and then we perform the integration at our place. Both satellites are located in a place called 4 West, a little west of the coast of Africa. From there they give us service to the three areas. In total, if you want to cover the whole world, you need 3 satellites that are separated by 120 degrees. This satellite is designed to provide service only in the areas we specified.
The commercial activity of the aviation industry, it established two partnerships over time - one is the ISI company through which it sells the observation satellites - the aviation industry built the satellites and ISI is the one that provides the service. The second company - Chall, which also raises the capital, also builds the satellites and provides service to customers.
In terms of international cooperation, we are involved in two programs, one - a huge program, Galileo, to build a system that will allow Europe to be independent of the GPS satellites. The cost of the system is 3.2 billion euros - 30 satellites that will be active in 2010. The State of Israel joined this program, investing 18 million euros for the right to compete for parts of work within this project. The second project is the Venus project - a scientific project whose job is to check agricultural crops using a 12-color camera and the scientists analyze the results if there are diseases, if the irrigation is correct. The scientists and farmers get it for free, no money. We work with the French. We provide a derivative of one of our satellites, the French provide the systems for analyzing the results and also purchase the camera after searching in Europe and not finding it, they bought the camera precisely at Al Op and not anywhere else. The command of the helicopter will be from the State of Israel. The information will be collected from a place called Corona in Sweden. Corona is very close to the North Pole and there the number of passes of the satellite are the most and the information can be downloaded very often. From there the information will go to Toulouse, where a center will be established to analyze the results and from there they will be distributed to the whole world.
In conclusion, I wanted to give you the feeling that Israel has a space industry centered on the aerospace industry with significant achievements, it is important to develop the industry's independence with first class satellite performance and the fact that we are able to carry out a joint project and supply a satellite to the French Space Agency, the second largest in the space sector. Quite a lot of Israeli industries are engaged in the field of space and as a result of the activity, new products are created and can compete with certain elements in the field of space also abroad. A less happy thing - the size of the investment that the State of Israel invests in the issue of space in Israel - is almost zero. Even compared to countries less rich than the USA and even France. If you want to push the technology, you have to invest more. Everything we do is either on a security basis or on a commercial basis. Technology development requires much more resources.
Question from the audience - how do you defend yourself against the fear of satellite interception?
The only defense is the immunity of the media. We prevent anyone from getting into our command by transmitting encrypted codes and preventing anyone from taking over satellites. There have been no such cases to date. There is no such danger at the moment.
After Kachako's lecture, it was my turn - the second host - to tell about the history of the science website.
Tomorrow: the lecture of Dr. Gabi Sarosi - the chief scientist at Alup.
