The much-awaited departure into Space of ESA‘s Proba-3 pair of satellites on a PSLV-XL launcher from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, near Chennai, in India is planned on December 4th 2024. This ambitious ESA mission has required many years of hard work given its aim to achieve something in Space that was previously considered impossible. SPACEBEL is one of the industrial core team members of the Proba-3 consortium under the leadership of Sener (Spain), prime contractor, to highly contribute to this innovative Space mission.
The Proba-3 Mission
First precision formation flying mission of the European Space Agency meant to study the outer atmosphere of the Sun, Proba-3 (Project for On-Board Autonomy) is Europe’s fourth technology demonstrator designed to test new Space technologies destined for future ESA missions.
As a matter of fact, Proba-3 will be extremely challenging as it comprises two elements flying together at a distance of 150 m while behaving like one single spacecraft in a highly elliptical orbit at some 60.000 km from Earth. Both satellites will have to be in very precise locations in relation to each other to form one virtual solar observatory. The satellite equipped with a round 140 cm diameter disk will act as an occulter to create an artificial solar eclipse on a sustained basis whereas the other one – the coronograph – will study the halo around the Sun for up to 6 hours per orbit.
Apart from demonstrating new Space technologies and experiments for future ESA missions – in particular precision formation flying – Proba-3 also has a scientific objective: observe during two years the solar corona. This hottest layer of the solar atmosphere with temperatures rising up to millions of degrees is the source of solar winds and storms, well-known as space weather phenomena which can affect systems and infrastructure in orbit and on Earth. Studying the corona is quite complex as it is visible only for a few moments on Earth during rare total eclipses. Proba-3 has been designed to tackle this problem by artificially mimicking an eclipse while reducing diffraction issues – a phenomenon that is common to other solar observation missions – and improving overall visibility of the Sun’s surroundings.
SPACEBEL & Proba-3
Thierry du Pré-Werson, Managing Director of SPACEBEL proudly points out: “For many years, SPACEBEL has been bringing our software engineering expertise and innovative IT solutions to this cutting-edge Space mission as the contractor in charge of the entire Proba-3 software package. This ambitious project flawlessly illustrates our cross-functional skills at all levels of a Space mission. “
SPACEBEL has provided:
the on-board software piloting Proba-3’s pair of platforms and communicating with the payloads;
the satellites’ simulator supporting the software testing and operation preparation;
the ground segment software for the satellite control centre and mission operation centre.
Another peculiar feature: the Visualisation Tool for Space data (VTS) developed by SPACEBEL in cooperation with CNES is being deployed to picture and synchronize real-time 2D and 3D renderings of the Proba-3 satellites’ data thanks to a code in Python realised by ESA and establishing a real-time link between VTS and the incoming telemetry. VTS will also be used to train Proba-3 operators and will be integrated into ESA’s control infrastructure at Redu (Belgium). A wonderful example of how the VTS toolkit benefits the design and implementation of often complex Space missions.
Thierry du Pré-Werson ends by saying: “In addition to the prestige of this pioneering Space mission, Proba-3 is a wonderful acknowledgment of the SPACEBEL know-how and our constant striving to deliver mission critical software solutions that are perfectly compliant with our customers’ needs and expectations. We would like to thank ESA and Sener for their confidence in the skills and commitment of our teams. “
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