TRL11, one of the leading providers of video solutions for the space industry, has successfully validated several of its core technologies on a demonstration mission in Low Earth Orbit, despite the host spacecraft developing an anomaly shortly after deployment. All three products in TRL11’s demo mission operated nominally for the duration of Vast’s Orbiter SN03 mission, launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-8 flight on June 12, 2023.
TRL11’s primary system, called SAVER (Space Aware Video Edge-Compute Recorder), recorded 90 minutes of detailed full-motion video from multiple camera angles, then used its edge processor to perform recursive, selective encoding for optimal data storage and resilient transmission. SAVER seeks to supplement traditional sensors and telemetry data and assist operators with unambiguous visual information about their mission, including that of unanticipated events, which are difficult to define and describe in fixed telemetry schemas.
Still image from TRL11’s recorded footage shortly after deployment from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle during Transporter-8 mission.
“I know the clip is short, and hardly the first video from a spacecraft in orbit, but to do this from scratch within just a few months of our first fundraise is truly exhilarating,” says Nicolaas Verheem, the company’s Founder and CEO. “It also gives us a great platform to develop many more video applications from.”
The ultimate goal is to provide the full set of video tools, including real-time AI/ML analysis and very low-latency streaming that can be used for space domain awareness, remote teleoperations in space (e.g. spacecraft inspection, on-orbit assembly, and docking). Streaming reliable video in space has long been a challenge for the industry where bandwidth is extremely limited - but TRL11's edge computing aims to overcome this historical barrier.
Although a tumbling host spacecraft shortened the mission and caused challenges with ground comms, significantly limiting the amount of video that could be downloaded, TRL11 successfully demonstrated much of the system, obtaining brief but high-quality footage. The first few seconds of the video showed a serene space scene just beyond Earth's atmosphere, with another satellite clearly visible in the distance. This milestone reinforces their strategy to bring full-motion video to every spacecraft and inspires the team to further enhance SAVER’s resilience against the challenges inherent in all space missions.
In addition to SAVER, TRL11 also demonstrated their in-house developed 12U Smart CubeSat Deployer (CSD), which successfully placed three satellites into their intended orbits. All customers confirmed the normal and healthy operation, validating TRL11's deployer. The CSD allows for ~50% larger payloads while still complying with the CubeSat specifications, through the use of extra large protrusion volumes. The deployer is also equipped with other advanced features, including several sensors and optionally video cameras, providing proof of successful deployment and kinematic information thus greatly surpassing the capabilities of traditional deployers.
The third technology proved by TRL11 on this mission was HANS, a space-rated Hardened & Augmented Network Switch, to integrate networked cameras, including those Powered over Ethernet (PoE). The HANS system performed flawlessly, simultaneously expanding and simplifying TRL11's video integration options. The combination of the dispenser, recorder, and switch was designed specifically for Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTV) customers, which typically have third-party payloads, and will benefit from video confirmation of deployment.
All three of TRL11’s products - SAVER, Smart Cubesat Deployer, and HANS network switch - now have flight heritage and will be made available to industry partners in the coming months. “We are very grateful to Vast for the partnership, to SpaceX for their rideshare services, and we look forward to many more partnerships in future!” said Verheem.
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