SpaceTech, a company that designs, develops, and manufactures reliable, innovative, high quality, and cost-effective space equipment and subsystems for space missions - from Earth observation, navigation, and science to new space mega-constellations has introduced a new Coarse Earth and Sun Sensor (CESS) for satellites.

The CESS is a passive device that can provide instantaneous attitude information, independent of the satellite orientation. After launcher release and in case of emergency, a spacecraft typically operates a so-called safe mode. In this phase, a reliable sensor is essential to provide orientation information, relative to Sun and Earth. The CESS provides spacecraft orientation at any time, crucial for SC deployment, de-spin, and survival in safe mode.

It is equipped with two thermo-optical sensor areas, which react differently to solar and infrared heat sources. With 6 CESS heads accommodated along the positive and negative axes of the satellite, a simple algorithm determines the different heat contributions, by means of space-qualified thermistors. The different temperature read-outs allow for in-situ determination of its orientation, relative to Earth and the sun. This is fundamental for the spacecraft’s attitude and orbit control system as well as for the power charging via solar arrays.

The CESS is shock and vibration qualified and has a lifetime of up to 15 years. It has a mass of 80g and measures 108x42x58mm³. The sensor supports M4 Mounting mechanical interface and 26-pin HD D-Sub connector electrical interface. It uses Heraeus M222 PT1000 thermistors and requires a measurement current of less than 0.5 mA (permanent) and 5 mA (switched).

Heritage

The SpaceTech CESS has been used in numerous successful LEO space missions e.g., CHAMP, GRACE FO, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X, Paz, Cryosat, SWARM, and Sentinel-6.

Click here to learn more about the Coarse Earth and Sun Sensor (CESS) from SpaceTech.

Click here to learn about Sun Sensors from various manufacturers listed on SATNow.