Orbital Critical Systems has been the industry partner for the design and execution of the infrared camera on the Balloon EUSO Mission. This project consists of a technological demonstrator for the main space mission, called EUSO, in order to experimentally validate the proposed design. An international consortium participated in the mission where Orbital Critical Systems was selected for the development of the infrared camera system.
The infrared camera, IR-Cam, is intended to define the presence of clouds along the field of view of the instrument and collect data to calculate their height. This data enables the calibration and discarding, if necessary, of measurements taken by the main instrument.
The project requirements have been met, including the different environmental requirements such as being 40 km high in the stratosphere, enduring 10G shocks or funcioning as a submersible instrument.
The Cam-IR instrument comprises a distributor power supply (PSU), an autonomous power system, a control unit of the instrument (ICU) and the infrared camera subsystem. The system uses the same microbolometer as the main Space Mission which allows the data acquired to be related with that estimated in the Space Mission, providing definitively valuable information to contribute towards the final design of the EUSO Mission.
The system has successfully flown (August 2014 Timming, Ontario Canada) and has met the requirement of re-usability for subsequent flights, for which it is currently available.
Main tasks carried out:
- Engineering Systems IR instrument Camera (IRCAM)
- Development of electronics and software control.
- Design of Power Supplies (PSU)
- Sensors and control loops systems.
- Thermal Control.
- Documentation.