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UT Students Develop Software to Help Satellites Seek Objects


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The software will guide the Seeker satellite in performing specific maneuvers around the Northrop Grumman Cygnus Cargo Delivery Spacecraft, which is carrying cargo to the International Space Station.

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
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Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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