Space Age Engineers To Verify Control Software For Future Robotic Inter-planetary Missions

August 22, 2008

An international team of engineers is to develop mission-critical control software for future European robotic space missions, it has been announced.

Artist’s view of a future Mars Sample Return (MSR) ascent module lifting off from Mars’ surface with the Martian soil samples. (Credit: Image courtesy of ESA)

Dr. Declan Bates, a senior lecturer in the University of Leicester Department of Engineering, is part of an international consortium that has won €250K from the European Space Agency to develop new verification and validation techniques for next-generation satellite systems.

Dr. Bates will lead a team of researchers from the Control and Instrumentation Research Group on a two year project which aims to radically improve the reliability of the mission-critical control software required for the successful rendezvous of groups of satellites. The other members of the consortium are the Spanish advanced technology company GMV, the Canadian company NGC Aerospace, and the University of Oxford.

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Posted in Science and Technology, Space Exploration