SMC is the first non-U.S. customer to use Orbit Fab’s fiducial alignment markers. The markers are painted on SMC’s Optimus Orbital Servicing Vehicle, which is set to launch in early 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight.
Orbit Fab’s fiducial markers are designed to act like a QR code, ensuring, for example, that a fuel shuttle replenishes the correct client. The fiducial markers also ensure proper spacecraft alignment for docking.
“Without these fiducials, mission operators would need much more complex computer vision systems, more compute power, and you might even need artificial intelligence,” Orbit Fab CEO Daniel Faber told SpaceNews by email. “You’ve got to deal with very difficult lighting effects. These fiducial markers really simplify the process of having our Orbit Fab fuel shuttles approach a spacecraft and prepare and align for secure docking and refueling in space.”
SMC’s work with Orbit Fab “will serve as a pioneering example of in-space validation of these groundbreaking technologies,” Rajat Kulshrestha, SMC co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Bundles with RAFTI
Orbit Fab has bundled its fiducial marker system with the company’s refueling port known as RAFTI, or Rapidly Attachable Fuel Transfer Interface.
“We’ve provided RAFTI and fiducials to a number of government and commercial companies to make their spacecraft refuelable and safe for rendezvous and docking procedures and missions in space,” Faber said.
Orbit Fab, SMC and a third company launching a satellite on Transporter 10 rely on Orbit Fab’s fiducial…
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