Unmanned Systems Technology 022 | XOcean XO-450 l Radar systems l Space vehicles insight l Small Robot l BMPower FCPS l Prismatic HALE UAV l InterDrone 2018 show report l UpVision l Navigation systems

49 Space systems | Insight the lander’s protective aeroshell onto the surface through the environmental and operational challenges NASA expects it to face. These are significant, as compared with the previous Phoenix Mars lander, InSight is carrying 35 kg more mass at a velocity 0.7 km/s higher, into a more northerly and therefore more dusty and storm-prone environment. To handle these difficulties, the EDL is designed to open its parachute at a higher speed, and it also has a thicker and stronger heat shield and parachute line material. After the lander separates from the EDL’s parachute and the back shell of its aeroshell, 12 descent engines on the lander begin firing and the onboard guidance software slows the spacecraft until touchdown. Once settled, the lander’s 2.4 m robotic arm will place InSight’s seismometer and heat-flow probe on the surface to begin gathering data, before gathering coloured 3D imagery of the landing site. Additional sensors on the craft will measure variations in weather and magnetic fields. Comms will rely on spacecraft orbiting Mars to relay data to NASA’s Deep Space Network, carrying telemetry back to Earth. Solar research The Deep Space Network will also be used by the Parker Solar Probe to gather research data on the Sun’s corona, eruptions and solar winds. Launched this August, the probe conducted the first of seven fly-bys of Venus in October for allowing gravity-assisted manoeuvres to accomplish 24 orbits of the Sun. The craft’s systems will be protected by a 4.5 in thick heat shield designed at John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and built by Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies. The shield is made from two carbon plates encasing a carbon composite foam and coated with white ceramic paint on the Sun-facing side. It has been tested to 1650 C and is anticipated to guard against the 1400 C of the Sun’s corona, while the probe itself could be heated to roughly 30 C. The distance of the spacecraft from Earth, relative to its dangerous proximity to the Sun, also means autonomy is critical to ensure it can sustain itself. The probe is therefore designed with an array of light detectors around the edge of the heat shield’s shadow. If any of them detect sunlight, the main computer is notified and the craft automatically adjusts its position and attitude to keep its instruments and vital systems protected. Interstellar The Transiting Exoplanetary Survey Satellite (TESS), launched in April, is poised to continue the search for worlds beyond the Solar System over a two-year mission orbiting the Earth. It will conduct transit photometry, whereby fluctuations in the visible light of stars can reveal the existence and qualities of planets transiting in front of them. The sensor designed to accomplish the corresponding photometry integrates four wide-field CCD cameras, each of which uses four CCD light sensors and a lens assembly with seven optical elements, to produce a 24 x 24° field of view. TESS will gather and tile a total of 26 observation sectors of the night sky over two years. Each sector will consist of a 96 x 24° imaged area, collected over 27 days, after which the spacecraft’s thrusters will reorient it to point towards the next sector’s portion of the sky. The photography will also be made up of full-frame images of each section, and more precise images aimed at capturing the light (and fluctuations therein, potentially indicating the presence of planets) around individual stars. TESS will transmit its data when closest to the Earth (a perigee of 108,000 km), and currently flies a never-before-used highly elliptical orbit pattern, completing a circuit every 13.7 days – half the orbital period of the Moon – having begun this pattern 60 days after launch. That will keep it within a safe thermal and radiative environment while maximising the amount of the sky it can capture. Once TESS’ data is processed, it will be used to develop a list of candidates for the James Webb Space Telescope (the successor to Hubble) to be observed more closely once it begins operating in 2021. TESS will have the furthest observational range of any craft to navigate the Earth’s orbit so far, but many more vehicles will share its space in due course, as unmanned systems developers continue leading humanity towards untapped, off-world opportunities and discoveries. Unmanned Systems Technology | October/November 2018 TESS will serve as the follow-up to the Kepler mission, which has found 2300 confirmed exoplanets and more than 3000 unconfirmed exoplanet candidates (Courtesy of NASA)