Communications of the ACM
UT Students Develop Software to Help Satellites Seek Objects
University of Texas researchers developed navigation software that is being used by a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
Credit: Lauren Ibanez/The Daily Texan
Researchers at the University of Texas have developed navigation software for a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite that launched Tuesday on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
The software sends information to various navigational sensors on the satellite, called Seeker 1, to help it maneuver.
Seeker 1 is part of a NASA project to design small spacecrafts that can fly around larger ones, carrying humans to conduct damage inspections or provide servicing.
In this particular mission, Seeker 1 will perform specific maneuvers around the Northrop Grumman Cygnus Cargo Delivery Spacecraft, a large vehicle carrying cargo to the space station.
The researchers trained the software to identify and locate objects in space using three-dimensional-modeling software to create pictures of the target spacecraft.
After training the software, it was able to detect Cygnus with 96.5% accuracy.
From The Daily Texan
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
No entries found