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Space technology with roots in Ottawa will soon fly on a pair of European satellites that will stare toward the sun to study its super-hot corona.
Neptec UK Ltd. is building the system, a laser-based device that will allow two satellites to fly in close formation, 150 metres apart. The company operates in Canada, including Ottawa, as Neptec Design Group.
Neptec’s job is to keep the distance between the satellites precise, measuring down to millionths of a metre. It’s like a very fancy version of a golfer’s laser rangefinder.
The Proba-3 mission will use the two satellites together because one will block out the sun for a telescope on the other, while still allowing the telescope to see the corona, or glowing plasma around the sun. The European Space Agency will launch it in 2018.
Neptec president Mike Kearns said this technology is a new twist on a similar device his company has already designed for JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency.
“We actually had to build test equipment that was going to test the test equipment” for that design, Kearns said.
The original device was so sensitive to minute changes that vibration from a martial arts class next door to the lab, and body heat from people walking past, could affect the testing.
Neptec isn’t telling the value of the contract, but is building it mainly in Britain.
“The Canadian Space Agency didn’t have enough funds to fund it and so I looked at other funding sources and in the end the British Space Agency showed a lot of interest,” he said. Canada and Switzerland are also contributing.
But he said the new device won’t be identical to the only one, so that means a whole new design job is required.
“It’s very challenging technically.”
The technology is called High Accuracy Metrology System (HAMS).
Kearns said that the two satellites will be able to operate like a single larger machine.
He says his company’s metrology design may have broader uses in space to keep pairs or even large groups of satellites in a precise formation. The company says in a release that “small satellites could be launched from Earth independently, and then joined by HAMS technology in space to form larger structures or platforms such as very large telescopes.”
tspears@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
Neptec UK Ltd. is building the system, a laser-based device that will allow two satellites to fly in close formation, 150 metres apart. The company operates in Canada, including Ottawa, as Neptec Design Group.
Neptec’s job is to keep the distance between the satellites precise, measuring down to millionths of a metre. It’s like a very fancy version of a golfer’s laser rangefinder.
The Proba-3 mission will use the two satellites together because one will block out the sun for a telescope on the other, while still allowing the telescope to see the corona, or glowing plasma around the sun. The European Space Agency will launch it in 2018.
Neptec president Mike Kearns said this technology is a new twist on a similar device his company has already designed for JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency.
“We actually had to build test equipment that was going to test the test equipment” for that design, Kearns said.
The original device was so sensitive to minute changes that vibration from a martial arts class next door to the lab, and body heat from people walking past, could affect the testing.
Neptec isn’t telling the value of the contract, but is building it mainly in Britain.
“The Canadian Space Agency didn’t have enough funds to fund it and so I looked at other funding sources and in the end the British Space Agency showed a lot of interest,” he said. Canada and Switzerland are also contributing.
But he said the new device won’t be identical to the only one, so that means a whole new design job is required.
“It’s very challenging technically.”
The technology is called High Accuracy Metrology System (HAMS).
Kearns said that the two satellites will be able to operate like a single larger machine.
He says his company’s metrology design may have broader uses in space to keep pairs or even large groups of satellites in a precise formation. The company says in a release that “small satellites could be launched from Earth independently, and then joined by HAMS technology in space to form larger structures or platforms such as very large telescopes.”
tspears@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
