Page 25 - Summer 2025

Industry News

alignment of the solar eclipse. The Coronagraph Bath Space Weather Sensors to launch in 2027
contained the imaging equipment whilst the
Space weather sensors developed at the University
Occulter, positioned 150 metres away, used a 140cm
of Bath are due to be launched in 2027 as part of the
disc to block the Sun’s intense light. A combination
TOPCAT II project, designed to take measurements
of camera technology, laser rangefinding, cold
of atmospheric conditions in space to inform
gas propulsion and advanced navigation software
improvements to technologies such as GPS.
enabled the precise alignment required to cast a
millimetre-accurate shadow onto the optical system
of Coronagraph.
The observation occurred at a distance of around
60,000 kilometres from Earth with each elliptical orbit
requiring the two satellites to independently detect,
align and maintain their respective positions for up
to six hours with a stability of under a millimetre, all
FOCUS ON SPACE without human intervention.

Created at the University of Bath Department of
Electronic and Electrical Engineering, the second
TOPCAT (Topside ionosphere Computer Assisted
Tomography) forms part of the £5.15 million Orpheus
mission, which follows from the Prometheus-2 and
Robots set to build Infrastructure in Space Space Solar selected the UKAEA Centre for Remote CIRCE missions which resulted in the loss of the
Applications in Challenging Environments because original TOPCAT.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
fusion and space robotics have a number of things
(UKAEA) and space-tech company Space Solar The TOPCAT II payload measures 9x7cm and carries
in common, in particular the fact that neither require
have demonstrated that robots could build an advanced multi-frequency GPS receiver that
oxygenated environments and both can function in
infrastructure in space without human intervention. aims to estimate the total electron content of the
varying degrees of radiation. Together they have the
ionosphere, helping to gain a better understanding of
The AlbaTRUSS project, conducted at the UKAEA potential to provide constant, low-carbon baseload
the driving processes of geophysical phenomena in
advanced test facility at Culham in Oxfordshire, energy around the world.
the ionosphere-thermosphere system.
showed that remotely operated dual-arm robotic
Dr. Sam Adlen, Co-COE of Space Solar, comments:
manipulators were able to guide robots to assemble Professor Cathryn Mitchell, who helped design
gigawatt-scale solar power satellites, paving the way “The AlbaTRUSS project is a milestone not just for By providing stable and extended eclipse conditions, TOPCAT, states:
for robots to assemble infrastructure such as data our satellite architecture, but for the future of large-
Proba-3 has enabled researchers to study the Sun’s “This is an exciting opportunity for us to have our
centres in orbit. scale structures in space, from data centres to space weather instrument on a satellite and to use
corona in more detail and for longer periods that ever
energy infrastructure. the data in the University of Bath MIDAS imaging
Space Solar aims to harness abundant solar energy before, helping to potentially mitigate undesirable
data assimilation, an advanced algorithm that
in space and beam it back to Earth using satellites Up in space, the Sun shines 24/7. Once constructed, effects such as solar flares and coronal mass gives us a highly accurate three-dimensional
consisting of hundreds of thousands of modular these satellites capture solar power and beam ejections which can interfere with satellites, power image of the Earth’s ionosphere and its evolution in
units assembled into structures 20 metres wide and it back down to Earth in the form of microwaves, grids and radio communications. time”.
several kilometres in length. AlbaTRUSS as a proof- which can be received by antennas on the ground
Reference: West, P., ‘First Images of Solar Corona captured using Reference: West, P. ‘Bath Space Weather Sensors to launch into Orbit
of-concept project has shown that robots could be and converted into electricity for the grid.
artificial Eclipse’, Electronic Specifier, 17th. June in 2027’, Electronic Specifier, 20th. June
used to assemble a scaled structural truss bay or
The achievement opens up new horizons for the
‘longeron’ tubing, which forms a core element of the
space sector, an adjacent economic sphere that
satellite’s framework.
can ensure a bright future here on Earth”.
Reference: Gittins, C., ‘Robots could build Infrastructure in Space’, Visit our website!
Electronic Specifier, 2nd. June
Artificial Eclipse captures first Images Why not head down to our website and
of Solar Corona read more news in our blog section?
The first successful imaging of the Sun’s corona
from space has been achieved using a pair of
Updated daily with hand-picked articles
synchronised satellites to create an artificial solar
eclipse. from around the web...
The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission,
which involved 29 companies from 17 countries,
used the two satellites Coronagraph and Occulter in institutionofelectronics.ac.uk
high-precision formation flying to recreate the optical

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