A Centretown high-tech company is celebrating its part in the high-profile Rosetta mission that made international headlines on Nov. 12 when the European-built spacecraft launched a lander onto a comet hurtling through 510 million kilometres from earth.
Ottawa business ADGA-RHEA Group – located on Argyle Ave. near the Canadian Museum of Nature – was responsible for the software onboard the Rosetta spacecraft.
“It was pretty exciting,” says Aline Porrior, ARG’s executive assistant. “It’s not every day that you get to say your company helped put something on a comet.”
The company’s MOIS software allowed scientists to control Rosetta’s movements and send operational commands remotely.
Launched in 2004, the Rosetta satellite was put into hibernation in June 2011 to limit the use of its solar power during the journey.
Two years later − as the satellite floated through space nine million kilometres away from the comet − the MOIS technology not only helped to reawaken Rosetta’s instruments but also helped propel it to its destination with precision.
Porrior and a few other employees were up all night in the office boardroom the day of the landing, watching the live feed from the European Space Operation control room in Darmstadt, Germany.
“As we watched everyone on the TV going ‘Yes!’ we were all going ‘Yes!’ as well. We are just over the moon about it,” she says.
The Philae lander descended on comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it was travelling through space at an astonishing 66,000 km/h. The lander weighs 100 kilograms and is roughly the size of a small refrigerator.
David Pantalony, curator of physical sciences and medicine at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, says there is more to space exploration than just the physical spacecrafts.
“We always see the drama of the hardware, of the probe, but there is all this other working going on that is invisible to us,” he says.
Ottawa’s high-tech sector is known for its strong software development, which is a crucial part of space exploration, Pantalony explains. “In this case, it wouldn’t have been possible without it.”
Pantalony says the museum is working on ways to show the public the role that software can play. “We are trying to find out, how do we collect this stuff so it’s more tangible and accessible for the public to see,” he says.
SED Systems in Saskatoon – a division of Ottawa-based Calian Technologies Ltd. – also played a part in the historic event. SED Systems was responsible for building three ground stations used by the European Space Agency to communicate with the Rosetta spacecraft.
Currently, the Philae lander is in hibernation after its first experiment drained the remainder of its solar battery, but only after it successfully sent the data back to the Rosetta satellite.
The success of being able to land something on a comet is enough to celebrate on its own, according to Jeff Bird, Ottawa chair of the Aeronautics and Space Institute. He says the Rosetta mission proves we have the technology to rendezvous with a comet and perhaps change its course if one was ever en-route to strike Earth.
“Everyone here is so happy,” says ARG’s Porrior, “that even though Philae is dormant right now, the project was still a success. It’s something that we as a company are so proud of.”
ADGA-RHEA Group is currently working on technology for 80 other planned space missions with the ESA, including the ExoMars mission scheduled for 2018, which hopes to investigate the Martian atmosphere and search for signs of past or present life.