On Monday 20th November the first images were received from the MANTIS mission, which hosts an onboard computer developed through GSTP Element 1.
The computer has been designed through two separate contracts between GSTP and Open Cosmos in the UK. The first saw the development of the electronic parts needed to build the computer, while a follow on iterated the computer, its casing and the thermal control unit.
The first contract was straightforward, the design was clear and building the computer fairly straightforward. The challenges came with the second contract, which began to look at more detailed aspects of the design, such as improving the ability to withstand radiation.
“As with many things, the first push saw 80 per cent of the work done fairly quickly,” explains Nicola Melega, the technical officer in charge of the activity. “It’s the last 20 per cent that takes time and a critical eye to make sure everything is working properly.”
MANTIS, short for Mission Agile Nanosatellite for Terrestrial Imagery Services, isn’t the only mission using the GSTP-developed computer. Two of the units will also be integrated into ɸ-sat-2, pronounced Phi-Sat-2, a 6U CubeSat which will use one as a main computer, taking care of the spacecraft’s operations like attitude control and deorbiting. A second computer will act purely for the payload, preprocessing the data before sending it to an AI computational unit. The payload computer, together with the AI unit together form the payload data collection and processing system for the spacecraft.
MANTIS was the first satellite launched under ESA InCubed, a co-funding program run by ESA Φ-lab. It is mainly dedicated to Earth Observation, taking images that can be used for monitoring oil and gas spills and leaks.