Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Somerset West tech firm is reaching for the stars
THERE’S seldom a clear sense of direction in the vastness of outer space.
But a compact sensor roughly the size of a matchbox manufactured by a Somerset West company is soon headed for Nasa, and with the help of the sun, aims to help spacecraft travel to the right location. Established only 18 months ago, NewSpace Systems, partnered with the Dutch-led SSBV Aerospace and Technology and the South African Space Commercial Services Holding groups, was awarded a contract by the American aeronautics and space agency to provide two Fine Sun-Sensors.
CEO James Barrington- Brown described the company’s work, which focuses on building satellite components, as “making bits of spacecraft”.
The sensor will measure the angle of the spacecraft in relation to the sun. “In space you are just floating and spin- ning around with no sense of up or down, but the sun is a fixed point which you can use for guidance. So with the sensor attached to the spacecraft, it will process the sun’s image to determine where it is heading,” he said.
The front of the sensor is fitted with a mirror with slits cut in reflective metal. Sunlight will pass through these slits and an optical filter which has photo- sensors beneath it. A charge on the photo-sensors in turn gets read by a tiny computer which processes the image. It will then compute the sun vector and this information is returned to the spacecraft.
The company has teamed up with Stellenbosch University and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and is training artisans to assemble space exploration products.
One of the company’s other exciting projects is the Magnetorquer.
Barrington- Brown said because there is no friction in space, the Magnetorquer, which generates a large magnetic field, can move the spacecraft like a giant compass needle by converting solar power into motion, so that it will never run out of fuel.