On Tuesday 12-07-2016 DARE and Lens R&D signed a sponsoring contract, about the usage of a sun sensor for the DARE Advanced Control Team. Lens R&D, located at the ESA Business Incubation Center (BIC) in Noordwijk, focuses on the development of highly reliable sensors and systems that can be produced cost-effectively in larger quantities. Their main products are sun sensors which can be used for space applications.

The ACT will use Lens’ Bison 64 sun sensor in the attitude determination process of actively stabilized rockets, such as the CanSat V7S and Aether. The sun sensor measures the incidence angle of the sun rays, which then can be used to determine the orientation of the rocket.

Bison 64 SunSensor

The Bison-64 will be implemented in the ACT CanSat V7S, which shall be launched in September 2016. The sun sensor is then launched as a data payload module, such that the team can get familiar with the sensor interfaces and data handling processes. After the launch in September, the sun sensor shall be implemented in the Aether rocket, where it becomes a main sensor in the rocket attitude determination process.

The BiSon 64 sun sensor is a new high-performance sensor in the sensor package of the Advanced Control Team, which should help the team in making more advanced actively stabilized rocket systems.