New Cubesat Mission for Inspection Developed
The close observation of orbiting objects with Cubesats can efficiently support a wide range of applications, such as the inspection of defunct satellites for preparing active debris removal missions, or the inspection of operative spacecraft (International Space Station, telecom satellites) for maintenance purposes. Future applications can involve inspection of deep space objects, for example the cis-lunar human-tended station, that will constitute the Gateway for future exploration missions.
A recently closed TDE study developed the Space Rider Observer Cube mission, which aims to demonstrate the critical capabilities and technologies required for successfully executing an inspection mission in a safety-sensitive context. This in-orbit demonstration has the potential to open a wide spectrum of novel applications for CubeSats in the area of inspection missions.
The Space Rider is a reusable space transportation system envisaged to have its maiden flight in 2020. Multispectral images (visual, near-infrared, thermal infrared) of Space Rider in-orbit could be beneficial for getting insight in its performance and status (e.g. heat shield degradation), and for outreach purposes.
The activity, with Politecnico di Torino and Tyvak International srl in Italy, led to the definition of the mission and system concept for the observation of a vehicle in space. Main technology challenges have been identified and investigated, in the areas of proximity navigation, propulsion, observation, and deployment/retrieval mechanisms.
The SROC Design Reference Mission consists of a 12U CubeSat deployed from the Space Rider cargo bay with the purpose of imaging the vehicle from its vicinity with a multispectral camera.
The preliminary development plan of the entire project has been defined, aiming at a flight opportunity in early 2022.
T418-512MP closed in December 2019.