Speaker
Description
Achieving zero debris objectives requires spacecraft operations to have a well-informed decision chain throughout the mission lifecycle - from verifying successful deployment of spacecraft subsystems, through monitoring structural integrity during operations, or even confirming readiness for controlled end-of-life disposal. Visual inspection data provides a really versatible, direct and intuitive sources of information for such assessments, even though lately inspection cameras have growns in popularity, yet the dedicated on-board imaging for health monitoring purposes remains underutilised, in part due to the perceived cost and complexity of qualifying mission-specific camera hardware.
The Scanway Camera System (SCS) is a configurable, flight-proven camera system developed to lower the barrier to integrating health monitoring imaging into spacecraft and launch vehicle missions. The SCS product line aims to offer scalable complexity, ranging from single camera units for simple inspection through multi-camera acquisition systems to smart camera configurations with onboard data processing and AI capabilities. The modular architecture allows mission-specific tailoring of imaging parameters, optical configuration, and data handling approach tailored to the client specifications, enabling a single platform family to serve use cases as diverse as deployment event verification, thermal protection assessment, post-anomaly damage inspection, and proximity situational awareness.
The system has achieved TRL 9 through successful in-orbit operation, including visual documentation of launcher stage events during the YPSat mission aboard Ariane 6 and ongoing on-orbit demonstration on the STAR VIBE satellite. These missions have validated the system’s stability, imaging performance, and data handling in the space environment.
The paper discusses how the availability of a flight-qualified, reconfigurable vision system can contribute to zero debris efforts by enabling routine visual health assessment as a standard spacecraft function rather than a bespoke payload development, and how the resulting situational awareness at the individual spacecraft level supports more confident compliance with post-mission disposal requirements.