Image Taken from İMECE Shared for the First Time

The İMECE Satellite, developed by TÜBİTAK UZAY, Türkiye's eye in space, viewed the Togg Technology Campus in Bursa Gemlik. Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır shared the image taken from İMECE for the first time on his social media address.

“Türkiye's first high-resolution domestic and national observation satellite, İMECE, has been successfully in operation from the moment it is placed in orbit. An image taken by İMECE from Togg Technology Campus" Kacır said.

Making an evaluation on the subject on his social media account, TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal said, "The first image of Türkiye's first submeter resolution earth observation satellite named as İMECE, developed by TÜBİTAK UZAY, came from the prides of the National Technology Move, Togg Technology Campus. There is effort, pride and success in this image!” He said. Mandal, “The achievements of our country are even visible from space!” He emphasized.

İMECE, which was launched into space with a ceremony held at TÜBİTAK UZAY on April 15, can take a high resolution satellite image from anywhere on Earth without any restrictions. İMECE will be used in many areas such as target diagnosis, detection, natural disaster, agricultural applications. The satellite will be delivered to the Turkish Air Force after in-orbit tests.

İMECE, which is located in orbit at an altitude of 680 kilometers, will serve in many areas such as target diagnosis, detection, natural disaster, defense, agricultural applications with a design life of 5 years.

The earth observation satellite İMECE, developed at national facilities, was equipped with the experience gained from BİLSAT, RASAT and GÖKTÜRK-2 satellites. The electro-optical satellite camera with submeter resolution, produced for the first time in Türkiye, was developed by TÜBİTAK UZAY and integrated to İMECE. Thanks to this technologically critical camera, Türkiye's need for high-resolution satellite images has been met with domestic sources.

In addition to the electro-optical camera, onboard computer, electrical propulsion subsystem, attitude and orbit control subsystem, power and communication subsystems were designed and produced by TÜBİTAK UZAY for İMECE. Within the scope of the İMECE Project, attitude and orbit control software, analysis software, ground station software, especially flight computer software, were also developed by TÜBİTAK UZAY engineers. TÜBİTAK UME contributed to the İMECE Satellite with magnetometer and magnetic torque rod whereas TÜBİTAK MAM developed a fixed solar panel.

The outputs obtained from the İMECE Project will form the building block of the new satellites that Türkiye will have in the future. With this project, in addition to the critical space technologies, trained manpower and gained knowledge in this field will also be achieved. With the equipment produced within the scope of the project getting space heritage, Türkiye will have the potential to export systems with high added value.

The İMECE project, which started in 2017, has achieved significant gains that will form the basis for the next generation satellite platforms in 6 years. By putting İMECE into service, Türkiye will get space heritage for its camera with submeter resolution for the first time.

For the first time, Türkiye designed, developed and produced space-compatible electro-optical camera domestically at the national facilities. Thus, it became a country that produces and even exports its own camera from a point that supplies images from foreign satellites.