To celebrate the successful beginning of the Proba-2 satellite, the first images of the Sun captured by the equipment, constructed by Verhaert Space, a QinetiQ company, were unveiled Tuesday at a European Space Agency (ESA).
Proba-2, launched on 2 November 2009, is one of the smallest satellites ever to be flown by ESA, but it’s making a sizeable impact in space technology. PROBA stands for Project for On-Board Autonomy, and the satellite supervises itself using Verhaert Space’s advanced onboard computer.
Although the mission is overseen from ESA’s ground station at Redu, Belgium, which is operated in a joint venture by Verhaert Space, the high degree of on-board spacecraft autonomy reduces the need for ground operations.
“Proba-2’s computer is the most powerful computer developed in Europe for space applications, ” said Frank Preud’homme, commercial director of Verhaert Space. “It is sufficiently capable that it can monitor and manage a satellite’s on-board systems locally. The computer system has been selected for a number of new ESA missions and is also being evaluated by non-European customers for use as a platform or payload computer.”
