Space artificial intelligence (AI) corporations TelePIX said on the 3rd that it has completed verification using a space situational awareness camera launched in Jun. last year to estimate a satellite's attitude and compare it with the actual satellite bus's measured values.
The space situational awareness camera is a deep-space navigation device co-developed by TelePIX and optical solution corporations LK Samyang. It consists of a wide-field-of-view camera capable of capturing a broad area and an image-processing algorithm, and calculates a satellite's position and attitude based on the locations of stars and planets photographed in space.
According to TelePIX, the camera has carried out imaging missions in orbit for more than a year since launch and has continuously secured images sufficient to identify stars. In a recent test, it checked whether the function to estimate changes in the satellite's attitude using only captured images operates normally.
As a result of the test, the attitude changes calculated from the star observation images showed a trend similar to the values measured by the satellite bus. The angular velocity, which represents the satellite's rotation speed, also quantitatively matched.
The camera identifies individual stars by comparing the positions and brightness of stars captured in the image with a celestial information databases, the "star catalog." It then calculates which direction the camera and the satellite are facing based on the arrangement of the confirmed stars.
A test was also conducted to see whether the star recognition function is maintained even in environments where a bright celestial body is captured together. The footage shot in Apr. this year included the moon, but the company said it was still able to continue identifying surrounding stars even when part of the image was saturated by moonlight.
This camera applies commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components rather than parts specially manufactured for exclusive space use. TelePIX places significance on the fact that a device using commercial components performed imaging, star recognition, and attitude estimation functions for more than a year in the actual space environment. The results of this orbital operation are expected to be used as basic data for mass-producing space situational awareness cameras and optical navigation modules in the future.
Executive Director Ko Dong-uk, head of the satellite development division at TelePIX, said, "Over the past year, we operated the device in an actual orbit and verified the space situational awareness and optical navigation functions," and added, "The long-term operation record will serve as data to assess technological reliability in the future product mass production and commercialization process."