Space debris mitigation technology deployed in Astroscale spacecraft by Wind River
NewsJuly 19, 2023
ALAMEDA, California. Wind River's VxWorks software is used in the On-Board Computer (OBC) of Astroscale's ELSA-M Servicer spacecraft, the company announced in a statement.
Astroscale builds spacecraft aimed at dealing with the escalating and hazardous accumulation of space debris, with their End-of-Life service line (ELSA-M) designed to capture and retire multiple satellites in a single mission, according to the company.
The OBC supported by Wind River's VxWorks will facilitate the rendezvous between Astroscale's servicer spacecraft and the client satellite. The software applications on VxWorks are tasked with the computer vision processing for the system that will command ELSA-M, which requires a high degree of precision for robotic operations, the statement reads.
An in-orbit demonstration mission to capture an inactive satellite is planned for launch in 2025, marking the first time a commercial active debris removal satellite completes the end-to-end operations of a removal service with a full-sized and fully representative client satellite, the company says. This mission is part of Astroscale's collaboration with OneWeb and the European Space Agency (ESA).
