How to catch an asteroid – SA style! Stellies space tech company reaches new heights

To most it's the stuff of science fiction – a robotic spacecraft that lands on an asteroid. 

To the team at CubeSpace in downtown Stellenbosch, it's just another day at the office. 

The home-grown space technology company has developed software and hardware to control an asteroid lander and keep its payload cameras pointed toward the asteroid as it lands. 

Remarkably, the software was developed in less than four months, highlighting a key CubeSpace competitive advantage over other space-tech suppliers worldwide – to meet deadlines for critical satellite missions. 

The ConAsteroidLand control mode is just one of several recent mission-specific developments from CubeSpace, a global leader in Attitude Determination and Control Systems (ADCS) for spacecraft up to 1 ton. The company won a Western Cape Economy Innovation Award last year, one of multiple accolades for its pioneering work.

 Other mission-specific developments include ConRollSpin, a software package developed to enable prolonged thruster firing without saturating reaction wheels, and ConBfieldTrack, to allow a spacecraft to align its payload with the Earth's magnetic field. 

In its most recent press release, published earlier this month, the company emphasised the importance of providing mission-specific solutions at speed.  “The space industry is moving toward true industrial-scale manufacturing, but standardisation should not come at the expense of mission fit,” says Mike-Alec Kearney, CEO of CubeSpace. “We have built the capability to understand a customer’s mission, tailor or develop the right solution, manufacture it at volume and support it in orbit. Customers no longer need to choose between customisation and speed, or bring ADCS fully in-house to protect their program timelines.”  

CubeSpace prides itself on a range of products and hardware, underpinned by manufacturing and industrialisation processes that allow the company to build at speed - a key advantage when faced with demanding supplier lead times for satellite missions.