Spearheading the Korean satellite industry
Soletop Co., Ltd. is an engineering professional, dedicated to developing new technologies to build and deliver innovative products to customers. “From the beginning, we have embraced the concept of software-defined systems. Therefore, all of our self-developed systems are flexible, scalable and upgradable,” said CEO Sakong Youngbo in an interview with The Korea Post.
Sakong Youngbo is President and CEO of Soletop which leads the aerospace industry in the fields of high technology and research for satellite solutions. After founding Soletop in 1999, he has made significant contributions to advancement of the Korean satellite industry with provision of innovated technologies to government agencies and research institutes. Of note, Soletop has successfully developed the satellite operating system of the Arirang, the first multipurpose satellite in Korea. CEO Sakong said:
“A new era will definitely unfurl if everyone has his or her own satellite. People will be able to take pictures of the earth or space by operating satellites in their own way and download these photos on their smartphones. They also may spread to the world on a real time basis the severity of the natural disasters like floods happening in many areas of the world. Diverse individual media or SNS may share the contents featuring new views which cannot be covered by smartphones or drones.”
He says that the satellites or space which had been virtually monopolized by states are now a viable option to individuals, primarily thanks to the presence of “CubeSats.”
CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiples of 10×10×10 cm cubic units. CubeSats have a mass of about 1 kg per unit. CubeSat was developed in 1999 to promote the skills necessary for the design, manufacture, and testing of small satellites intended for low earth orbit that perform a number of scientific research functions. Soletop was appointed as a developer of CubeSat Platform based on CAN-PnP by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning
The main task is to develop satellite platforms which can change components easily and plug and play software based on its self-developed cube satellite technologies, such as data processing, battery control, electricity propulsion, UHF/VHF transmission and reception and attitude control. Based on its year-long performance results, various tests are now underway.
CEO Sakong said, “It is hoped that everyone can build low-cost CubeSats with ease and use them for multi-purposes. ”To this end, he said Soletop keeps partnerships with Korean universities, research institutes and global companies
Soletop can develop mating software such as ground testing system.
“We also maintain global partnerships with Orbital Systems, a leading manufacturer of ground station antenna positioners and components for a variety of satellite tracking applications. We also have close cooperation with NOAA and University of Wisconsin for satellite image processing algorithms,” said CEO Sakong.
Soletop’s business has grown from satellite control systems to remote sensing and to UAV control and environmental monitoring products. In 2014, Soletop added subsea business into its expanding portfolio.
Soletop played a leading role in advancing the domestic satellite industry by providing its self-developed remote sensing and control systems to government agencies and other public organizations. In 1999, the company developed observation software for Korea’s first multipurpose satellite, Arirang(KOMPSAT)-1. Soletop also participated in the design and development of observation systems for KOMPSAT-2, -3, -3A, -5 and -6.
Based on its technological expertise accumulated from the development of components of Arirang satellites, Soletop participated in the development of observation systems of COMS (Communication, Ocean and Metrological Satellite) and KOREASAT.
Going further, Soletop has exported satellite reception systems to some Southeast Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Of note, Soletop became the first Korean company to export a satellite ground system to Thailand. Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines had received images from Japanese and Chinese satellites. “But I feel proud of the fact that they can now receive better data from COMS since our satellite reception systems were installed in those countries.”