ÇOBAN: Design of Multi-Spectral Opto-Electronic Satellite Camera System

COBAN (an abbreviation for "multi-spectral camera" in Turkish) is a Multi-spectral Earth observing camera system developed for BiLSAT, a 129 kg micro-satellite, which was launched into a 686 km sun-synchronous orbit in 27 September 2003. COBAN is one of the two Turkish R&D payloads hosted by BiLSAT in addition to the two primary imager payloads (a 4 band multi-spectral 26 m Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) imager and a 12 m GSD panchromatic imager). The technical specification of COBAN can be summarized as follows: Number of spectral bands: 8. Ground Sampling Distance: 12 meter. Image size (in pixels): 640 x 480 (KODAK KAI-0311 CCD) Wavelengths of the bands: 375-425 nm, 410-490 nm, 460-540 nm, 510-590 nm, 560-640 nm, 610-690 nm, 660-740 nm, 850-1000 nm Aimed primarily as a tool for improving the capabilities for instrument design for space, COBAN successfully performed in space. However, the most important outcome has been the lessons learned from mistakes during design, manufacturing and testing, that will hopefully help us avoiding serious failures in future missions.