Up to 14.153 smallsats will be launched in orbit in 2021-2031. They are tiny spacecrafts, with low costs and fast development schedules, mainly launched in large constellations for target applications like telecommunication, Earth observation, Inter Satellite Link ... The determination of their attitude (orientation) can be achieved with high accuracy only through digital cameras, named Star Trackers, that must satisfy, above all, cost and size constraints, mandatory for the SmallSats market.
The ARGO Star Trackers aim to be the best answer to such a demand from the market: based on multiple cameras, they implement proprietary algorithms to perform a intelligent data fusion of the star measurements embedding smart auto-calibration techniques, able to compensate the degradation of the hardware properties caused by the harsh space environment.
The competitive advantage of ARGO is provided by the innovative architecture, algorithms and software developed by EICAS Automazione, based on over 30-years heritage in autonomous attitude determination from star measurements. ARGO - The Sky is the limit!
The ARGO star tracker is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº738589.