Spaceflight

Talks are under way to replenish the international low-Earth-orbit Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) as the multinational consortium prepares to announce new members.

The DMC provides Earth observation data comprising 640km (400 miles) swath images and can revisit target sites on a daily basis with multiple spacecraft.

The constellation consists of five 90kg (200lb) spacecraft using the Surrey Satellite Technology Constella platform, which carries enough fuel for five years of operation. The DMC consortium's five members are Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and the UK.

"We will be able to announce the constellation's new members very soon," says Paul Stephens, sales and marketing director for DMC International Imaging (DMCii), a Surrey Satellite Technology company that sells DMC images to third parties.

DMCii co-ordinates activity where more than one satellite is needed, and has helped to identify illegal logging activities and illicit crops such as fields of poppies grown to produce heroin in Afghanistan.