Renens, Switzerland, June 4, 2024 – In just 60 years, the conquest of space has thrown up a hundred million pieces of debris – scraps of rockets, hulks of metal and obsolete satellites. Orbiting for decades, these objects are a growing threat to space infrastructures such as the International Space Station or navigation and telecommunications satellites. Under Innosuisse support, ClearSpace, CSEM, EPFL and Klepsydra have invested in the development of a flash lidar based real-time autonomous navigation system for In-Orbit Servicing (IOS).

According to ESA (European Space Agency), over 35,000 objects over 10 centimeters are drifting around Earth. Consider tiny debris between 1 mm and 1 cm and the number rises to 130 million objects. Revolving around the Earth at a speed of 28,000 km/h, these debris turn into projectiles that can pose a threat to activities in space and to astronauts. Not only does this ‘space junk’ pollute our fragile near-Earth environment, but it also represents a critical risk to active satellites that can (and have been) destroyed in high-speed collisions with such debris.

The rapidly growing space industry is increasingly driven by commercial interests. Large telecom constellation operators need many cost-effective satellites to optimize coverage. This makes the usual expensive high-reliability flight hardware an unviable approach and translates to taking more risks on the reliability in space, eventually leading to more failed satellites.

As a result, space operations must be built with growth and sustainability in mind, requiring IOS capabilities. Its immediate goal is to remove failed satellites; in the future, it will extend to increasing their lifetime by refueling or repairing them.

Relative navigation

The key operational technology required for rendezvous and docking is called relative navigation. Cameras are sufficient for specific IOS tasks, such as the removal of a specific satellite currently under development in the ESA- funded ADRIOS project. However, because navigation needs to be robust to lighting conditions, e.g., be successful even when the target cannot be seen with the naked eye, flash lidars emerge as a variable solution. They produce full 3D images with a single laser pulse, thus overcoming the drawbacks of cameras which require good visibility, and of scanning lidars, whose acquisition time is too long to handle moving objects.

Successful Swiss partnership

On this project, ClearSpace cooperated with several partners with the aim of developing a fully autonomous navigation system based on a flash lidar. The solution includes new deep learning models for point-cloud-based 6D pose estimation, deployment using Klepsydra AI software to dedicated hardware to keep computation and power resources low, and a robust Guidance, Navigation and Control subsystem for safe target motion synchronization.

“In our effort to make space sustainable, our partners are strong allies, offering years of experience in the space application field. Currently our team has different projects in robotics and navigation with CSEM, EPFL and Klepsydra Technologies. Their expertise, pragmatism and diligence allow us to advance ClearSpace’s cutting-edge In-Orbit Servicing.”, says Jacques Viertl, managing director at ClearSpace Switzerland.

Antoine Ummel, project manager at CSEM, states: “We are proud to foster space sustainability by supporting ClearSpace. To our belief, answering the rapid developments of ‘New Space assets’ need to be matched by ‘New Space solutions’.” He continues “This challenging goal pushed us to make our lidars smaller, stronger, and smarter for space. The developed technology is suitable for other applications such as underwater 3D imaging.”

ClearSpace is actively pursuing opportunities to advance the development of the PFM, aiming to integrate this cutting-edge instrument and its embedded technology into our upcoming missions. We invite potential partners to contact us to discuss opportunities for collaboration and further innovation in space sustainability.