Göktürk-2 is an earth observation satellite designed and developed by the

Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey The Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu, TÜBİTAK) is a national agency of Turkey whose stated goal is to develop "science, technology and innovation" (STI) policies ...

(TÜBİTAK) and built by

TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute ( tr, TÜBİTAK Uzay Teknolojileri Araştırma Enstitüsü) or TÜBİTAK UZAY for short, is a Turkish institution carrying out research and development projects on space technology, electronics, in ...

(TÜBİTAK UZAY) and

Turkish Aerospace Industries Turkish Aerospace Inc. ( tr, Türk Havacılık ve Uzay Sanayi A.Ş., TUSAŞ) is the center of technology in design, development, manufacturing, integration of aerospace systems, modernization and after sales support in Turkey. Located in Ankara ...

(TUSAŞ) for the Turkish Ministry of National Defence. Göktürk-2 was launched from Jiuquan Launch Area 4 / SLS-2 in China by a

Long March 2D The Long March 2D (), also known as the Chang Zheng 2D, CZ-2D and LM-2D, is a Chinese two-stage orbital carrier rocket mainly used for launching LEO and SSO satellites. It is manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology ( ...

space launch vehicle at 16:12:52 UTC on December 18, 2012, one day before the initial schedule due to poor weather conditions in the region. Equipped with state of the art advanced technology developed by Turkey and a series of new enhancements to provide improved high resolution imagery, it was placed at 16:26 UTC into a

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

of . The first signal from Göktürk-2 was received at 17:39 UTC in the Tromsø Satellite Station, northern

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. Produced with 80 percent indigenously developed technology and 100% domestically developed software, the satellite offers

high-resolution Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail. Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how cl ...

imagery of resolution at panchromatic, at multispectral (

VNIR The visible and near-infrared (VNIR) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum has wavelengths between approximately 400 and 1100 nanometers (nm). It combines the full visible spectrum with an adjacent portion of the infrared spectrum up to the ...

) and at SWIR band. It is Turkey's second national satellite following

RASAT RASAT was an earth observation satellite designed and developed by TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute (TÜBİTAK UZAY) and produced in Turkey to provide high resolution imagery. It was the first remote sensing satellite fully realize ...

, which was launched from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

on August 17 the same year. For the

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

, it has three S band receivers and

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

s. Göktürk-2 later put its solar panels into service, and began the week after the launch to send data and its first images, which were from the US, Brazil, India as well as Turkey's western city of Izmir.

Resolution and payload

Professor Dr. Rahmi Güçlü of

Yıldız Technical University Yıldız Technical University ( Tr. ''Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi'', often simply referred to as YTU or Yıldız) is a prominent technical university dedicated to engineering and natural sciences as well as social sciences recently, and is one ...

in Istanbul, an engineer appointed by the Government of Turkey to audit and report on the Göktürk-2 program, has claimed that the imagery obtained from space by Göktürk-2 satellite can be used to identify even individuals, due to the state-of-the-art software filters they have developed and that the Turkish Government has already begun using the technology for obtaining intelligence on the military operations of several countries in the region. In addition to its primary military

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

mission, Göktürk-2 will carry out various civil applications on mapping and planning, landcover survey,

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

, ecosystem monitoring, disaster management,

environmental control Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HV ...

, coastal zone management, and water resources. The satellite is part of a family of Göktürk earth observations satellites, which Turkey is developing in order to increase its intelligence resources. As of December 2012, Göktürk-1 is in production and Göktürk-3 in project phase.

Foreign input

SpaceTech GmbH Immenstaad has supplied the solar generator system, which consists of the following: * three solar panels (including photovoltaic assembly), * panel deployment mechanisms, * the pyro drive module (PDM) electronics executing the deployment sequence of the mechanism.

Israeli objections

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

had repeatedly voiced its objection to the launch of the Göktürk family of satellites by Turkey, stating that it would be used to obtain high resolution imagery of Israel, which could eventually fall into the wrong hands. Turkish Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep may refer to: People Surname * Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer * Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer Given name * Recep Adanır (born 1929), Turkish footballer * Recep Akdağ (born 1960), Turkish physician and polit ...

rejected Israeli objections, stating that Turkey is a sovereign nation and as such it would not allow any Israeli interference with Turkey's decision to design, develop, manufacture and launch high resolution intelligence satellites.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gokturk-2 Reconnaissance satellites of Turkey Ministry of National Defense (Turkey) Earth observation satellites of Turkey Spacecraft launched in 2012 China–Turkey relations 2012 in Turkey Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey Military equipment introduced in the 2010s

Resolution and payload

Foreign input

Israeli objections

See also

References

External links