This is a clear image of Planet Earth, showing another beautiful day in the Mediterranean Sea. The outlines of Italy, Corsica, and Sardinia are very clear. What's interesting about the image is that it was taken with a commercial off-the-shelf Raspberry Pi computer and camera.
British satellite company SSTL sent the equipment to a spacecraft to see exactly how it would work. The European Space Agency sent two Raspberry Pi units to the International Space Station (ISS). But these were special units, specially prepared for this purpose.
The device flying on SSTL's technology demonstration satellite (DoT-1) is the same device you would buy commercially. SSTL spent £50 on it. The only modification made is to replace the standard lens with a fisheye.
“We bought three (computers) and did some testing to see which one was the best – we picked it and it flew,” explained SSTL director Rob Goddard. “We put it in a metal box but we didn’t really do anything to the Raspberry Pi Zero.”
The Guildford-based company is so impressed with how the Raspberry Pi worked, it's considering putting the microcomputerand its added camera to fly more often. There are many different roles, but the most obvious is as a "selfie" tool.
Satellites carry deployable structures like solar panels, booms, and antennas. A simple camera can help engineers see exactly what's wrong with a mechanism.
The primary mission of DoT-1, which launched in July, is to demonstrate the performance of a new core data handling system (Core-DHS). This avionics package is the brain of the satellite, integrating, among other things, the main computer, GPS, attitude and trajectory control system, and radio transmitter and receiver.
“We used to have all of this on different drives and now it’s all on the same system,” said Rob Goddard. “Core-DHS will be on satellites in the future ranging in size from 20kg to 300-400kg.” Obviously, testing this core avionics we wanted to load it with something like a payload and we decided to use this Raspberry Pi.”
The Pi project was carried out in collaboration with the Surrey Space Centre at Surrey University.
