SPACEBEL and OHB Italia Sealing Deal for ESA’s RAMSES Mission Onboard Software in View of Apophis Asteroid Rendezvous.
RAMSES stands for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety. This European Space Agency mission will escort and study the Apophis asteroid during its exceptionally close flyby in April 2029.
SPACEBEL supplies the onboard software for RAMSES – a critical component that will manage the entire spacecraft, its platform equipment and its payload instruments throughout the mission’s journey.
About Apophis & RAMSES
On April 13th 2029, Apophis, a 375-metre-wide asteroid, will pass at some 32.000 km from Earth. During a few hours, the rocky object will be visible to the naked eye from Europe and Africa. As this kind of close flyby happens only once in a millennium, it offers a unique opportunity to study in real-time how a near-Earth asteroid reacts to strong gravitational stress.
Thanks to RAMSES, scientists will get very detailed insight into the asteroid’s structure, composition, trajectory and rotation in response to external forces. This information is also vital to refine our strategies for planetary defence in case of a threatening near-Earth object (NEO) in the future.
Built and led by OHB-Italia S.p.A. in cooperation with the consortium team, the RAMSES spacecraft will carry several scientific instruments and deploy two CubeSats to study Apophis up-close and maximise the scientific return of the mission.
RAMSES is planned to launch in 2028 in order to arrive at Apophis a few months before the flyby, so the spacecraft can observe the asteroid before, during and after the encounter.
SPACEBEL & RAMSES
SPACEBEL is in charge of the RAMSES Central Software (CSW) design and development capitalizing on the Hera and Comet Interceptor development while maximizing the reuse of central software components. This flight software running on the onboard computer carries out the real-time functions of the main spacecraft, including command and control of the sub-systems, equipment and instruments on board, in particular the camera, used for both observation and navigation. It manages the operational instructions and measurements on board and implements the control and scientific data processing algorithms. It provides two-way communications between the main spacecraft and its two CubeSats, and also between the main spacecraft and Earth.
SPACEBEL also delivers the Software Validation Facility (SVF), enabling full validation of on-board software by modelling the various elements of the satellite, such as the on-board computer, platform equipment and payload instruments.
Eric Lardinois, CEO of SPACEBEL, proudly explains: “Already closely involved with various critical software contributions in Hera, ESA’s first planetary defence mission, SPACEBEL is once again taking a key role in an ambitious space mission.
This new project represents another challenging milestone for our company. With RAMSES, we reaffirm our commitment to excellence, innovation and responsibility in space. Moreover, this extraordinary mission highlights our purpose, i.e. contribute to a safe and sustainable planet and inspiring space exploration by engineering solutions for the global space ecosystem.
In this context, we are also pleased to continue our long-standing partnership with OHB-Italia, thereby underscoring the shared values that guide our work in space science and planetary defence.”
Source: ESA
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